Two of our staff have recently gained their Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) forklift truck operator certificate of competence, allowing them to operate the two specialist vehicles in our Stock Doors warehouse.
VNA trucks are increasingly used in high volume, palletised racking warehouses with narrow aisles and high racking, maximising storage capacity. Our Stock Doors warehouse is the tallest building on our Oldham site, allowing us to hold our full collections of stock doors (Juno, Opus, Choice and Fresh ranges), ready for immediate collection or next day delivery. The warehouse is also home to our samples department, marketing materials and additional storage for our Fittings Department.
The VNA trucks are unique vehicles: they can't turn around in the aisles, they only run backwards and forwards along the narrow aisles, guided by a metal strip embedded in the floor. Their strength lies in being able to operate within the narrow spaces between racking and at height: our Stock Doors warehouse racking tops out at around 8 metres, considerably higher than the reach of a standard forklift truck. The VNA trucks we have at HPP are the Operator-Up versions, which means the cab rises up with the forks, so anyone operating these machines needs a head for heights!
Given the height and the confined space within the racking in which they operate these are serious bits of kit and there is real potential for serious incidents if these trucks aren't operated correctly. So getting our staff the right training is vitally important, for the successful movement of stock within the warehouse and for the health and safety of the staff working there.
Darren Todd and Paul Arnold both received their VNA (Operator Up) training from Mantra Learning Ltd, Middleton, one of our regular training partners.
Darren Todd, our Stock Doors employee who joined us from an agency back in August last year, said he found the VNA truck test "very educational, the instructor was very professional."
Darren successfully completed 8.5 hours of conversion training and was given some one-to-one guidance before his training from Colin, Stock Doors Team Leader: "Having used various forklift trucks before it was very useful to see these controls before my training and assessment."
Darren already has his Reach Truck, Counter Balance and Flexi Truck licences. The VNA truck adds to his skillset, all certified by the RTITB (Road Transport Industry Training Board).
Paul Arnold joined HPP from John Lewis in November 2025, after moving back to Oldham from Stockport. He hadn't driven any form of forklift truck before, so this was a very new experience for him and certainly a very specialist skill to gain.
Paul says: "I enjoyed the test very much. It's my first forklift truck licence, so I was very happy to get that. I had 22 hours of Novice training over 3 days before my assessment, then a theory test for 30 minutes and then a practical test, again for 30 minutes."
Congratulations to both Darren and Paul on their achievement!