Thanks for joining us today, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. What do we have on the schedule today, oh hey, we\u2019re working on an episode where we\u2019ll be discussing what a 3pl is, why companies use them and what opportunities they can bring to us as Employees. I think you\u2019ll find it interesting, I\u2019ve reached out to a couple of subject matter experts and I hope to have it put together in the next few weeks. We\u2019ve had a lot of questions about 3pl so I\u2019ll try and get those answered. For today I wanted to share a phone call I received earlier in the week. Now, I get asked for help from individuals pretty often and of course we do our best sharing our opinions and thoughts. Here at WAOC we kind of think of our mission as to share experiences and reach out to those that can help us learn something and help us get our careers on track. I honestly believe if we develop a plan and have some defined goals we can pretty much accomplish anything we want too. So I received a call from a young gentleman that\u2019d been working in the construction field for the last 3 years. Hang on, I\u2019m getting ahead of my story a bit. After answering the phone he introduced himself, stated he had picked up our Podcast card at a Sourcing or Staffing company and he\u2019d decided he\u2019d like more information on being a Clamp Driver. As you may know a Clamp attachment is something that can be added on or attached to our forklifts. There\u2019s several different kinds. You can move 55-gallon drums with a barrel attachment and another kind of clamp is great for carrying loads like cylindrical big rolls of paper or a box blade for moving large cases eliminating the labor needed for moving them from one pallet type to another. Picture the box clamp as 2 blades on each side instead of our forks that squeeze or applies a measured amount of pressure allowing us to pick up the cases, carry them to another location and setting them down. They can save a lot of time and a lot of work and the manual stacking of product. I found a quick little read at https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-clamp-forklift-used-for , this article does a good job of explaining a few different clamp types and their uses. I\u2019ll include the link in today\u2019s notes on our website warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com in case you\u2019d like to read it. Ok back on track here, where was I, so this gentleman had been working in construction as of late but stated he was just tired of hunting jobs and not knowing how many hours he was going to get each week. He wanted something stable where he could work every day and have a good check each week! Clamp drivers, or people with some type of experience are sometimes difficult to run across so I\u2019ve got to admit I got pretty excited and was already thinking who I could call and tell\u2019em I\u2019d found a good clamp operator for them! I asked how much experience he\u2019d had on a clamp and what type, it\u2019s easier to place someone with a company that is using the type of equipment we have experience on. That\u2019s when I learned that he didn\u2019t have any experience with a clamp, he\u2019d actually never driven a forklift of any kind. Upon further discussion I learned he hadn\u2019t ever worked in a warehouse. I asked him how he\u2019d landed on being a clamp operator and he shared he had seen a job posting, liked the pay being offered decided that\u2019d be his next job!
\nNow you\u2019ve got to admire his motivation here. He wanted to know if I knew where he could get some training on one and where they were hiring for the position. I really enjoy these kinds of talks, you know helping someone plan out their goals and a path to reach them is pretty rewarding. That being said we have to be honest too though. I explained that forklift driving was really a kind of a skilled position, and experience is really the only training there is and starting out on a clamp truck is not the easiest truck to really learn with. Now he\u2019d done a little research,