Warehouse and Operations as a Career

A Career Talk hosted by Belmar Integrated Logistics!

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty T Hawkins and I thought we’d talk a bit about forklifts today. And I’d like to get a few questions answered regarding forklifts as well. I’ll tell you what, in a few minutes I’ll share how you can land one of those higher paying forklift positions!    As we all know, forklifts are an essential tool for material handling in warehouses,...

Hello all, Marty back with you at Warehouse and Operations as a Career. Its been busy, but busy is good. The first quarter of 2023 is gone. How’d you do, achieve all you’d planned for?   Lets see, oh, I wanted to say something about the 2 nd quarter real quick. Today we’ll be thinking about how hard a little change is and how accepting a little change can pay off for us and our families in a big w...

WAOC is mobile today and at one of my favorite festivals!  We’re hanging out at the Taste of Oak Cliff.  It’s a great community event, everyone comes together, store fronts, restaurateur’s and yes, a couple of sourcing and staffing agencies and one training center. So I wanted to take this opportunity while out and about to discuss jobs and careers and like I mentioned try and get a few questions...

So, during every PIT or powered industrial truck training class your instructor will mention, and I hope he or she will review, the Operators Manual with us.  This week, I had an individual ask why this was important, he stated that nobody reads those manuals. I understand the statement.  Did you know that when we purchase a new vehicle or car, we, as a new owner are supposed to read the owner’s m...

Forklift and Palletjack batteries.  Has your facility experienced any issues this week?  Our supplier called us this week to schedule our quarterly P.M. on our equipment and almost immediately I started hearing about batteries.  A palletjack battery in one state started smoking and another actually produced flames.  At one facility an unloader forgot to replace a guard plate, well, he said it alre...

Hey Team WAOC, everyone wrapping up the summer, getting the little ones back to school and trying to settle back into our routines?  July was a whipping for me professionally. Nothing really got out of hand, I just got overloaded.  I had a few 10 day classes come up, which was great, I really enjoy instructing those Logistics classes.  I filled in or covered a couple of other positions for the com...

Here we are, it’s that time again.  I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career!  I’ve gotten behind on questions that’s been sent in again so let’s see if we can get a few of those answered or brought up for discussion today. A gentleman named Kevin has been looking into or thinking about becoming a driver and maybe launching a career in transportation.  He asked what was meant by doubles...

Hi all. I was speaking with a V.P. last week and he brought up micro goals.  I got to thinking, I talk a lot about goals and planning, but isn’t our normal progression within the industry just that, a bunch of micro goals.  From a unloader or G/L position, to being trained on the electric rider pallet jack as a runner, and on to maybe a receiver, or putaway or replenishment forklift driver a...

Hey everyone, Marty T Hawkins here, and I want to thank you for checking in with Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  We all, or most of the time, we know what our job is.  We know the task, the function, and we may even think we know what expectations our boss has for us.  Or do we know any of that?  And who’s responsibility is it to know that we know those things?    Well, today I thought we’d...

Another month is wrapping up folks!  We appreciate you stopping in with us again today!  I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  We’ve had several questions lately about the front line management positions so I thought we’d talk about what those positions are and maybe I can share a few of the pros and cons of them with you.  At least maybe answer a few of those questions! So last we...

There are so many career opportunities in our industry, I learn about new task and positions within the logistics field every week!  Could you imagine planning and controlling the routes of container ships as an example? Today’s container ships may be something like 1200 ft long, with a draft of something like 50 foot and carrying as many as 14000 TEU. A TEU means Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career! We had an email question about Hand Trucks, a listener was wondering if there was a training course offered by anyone for its use? I gather there’s a position she’d like to apply for that had listed its use in the Job Description. She stated with 2 years of warehouse experience she had not had an opportunity to use one, seen them, but was a bit...

Marty here, and thanks for listening in to Warehouse and Operations as a Career again this week.  Let’s see, I’ve only taken a few notes for today’s show but I’m sure we can put something together.  I just noticed that this will be episode 286.  We’re getting close to that 300 mark!  I originally planned on doing 50 episodes!    OK, where’s my notes. Oh, I do want to mention that...

Hello all and welcome to week 15 of 2022.  You’ve found Warehouse and Operations as a Career and I’m Marty T Hawkins.  How is everyone doing?  I have been super busy for the last several weeks, but the ends in sight.  Speaking about the end of something, the first quarter of 2022 is here.  How did you do with your goals and how is your 2 nd quarter planning coming along?  I’ll change the topic so...

And it’s another week, a very productive week, and I hope a Safe week for all of us!  Marty here again with warehouse and operations as a career, and today I’d like to talk about a piece of equipment, well, in my experience, us warehouse folks will either love or grow to despise.  I may have been a little overly dramatic there, but I’ve known some people that, well, just couldn’t or wouldn’t make...

Hello all, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  I want to thank you for checking in with us today, and I think I’d like to talk a little about Ethics, maybe a little on Workplace Violence and our Reporting.  Earlier this week I was talking with a gentleman that had just came out of his Companies yearly meeting on Business Ethics.  Several of the larger facilities I deal with have...

Anhydrous Ammonia, anyone know what that is?  I’m Marty T Hawkins with Warehouse and Operations as a Career and we appreciate you checking in with us!  My apologies, I’m a bit horse today but let’s have some fun anyway! I brought up the words Anhydrous Ammonia a few weeks ago and had gotten a few questions about it so lets look it up today!  Merriam Webster tells us that Anhydrous means free from...

Everyone having a great week out there.  I certainly hope so!  I’m Marty and welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I have an old friend that always said work is work, that’s why they don’t call it fun.  I always disagreed with him.  Work is work but it has to be fun, to a point I mean.  If you know me at all you know that I believe we have to enjoy our jobs if we have a chance to t...

What is the most utilized and can be the most dangerous tool used in our Light Industrial Industry?  Care to make a guess?  I’m Marty with you here today at Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  Today lets talk a little bit about Pallets.  Pallets are everywhere, we’re around them all day every day yet how often do we really think about them.  There almost just an after thought right?  Yet we hav...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career everybody, I’m Marty and I’m cold.  I find myself in Denver, Co this week but you know what, It’s not much better, weather wise, back home in Dallas, Tx right now! I placed several ad’s this week, for a few positions in several states, and I received a few responses complaining about the hourly pay rates, that, well, I felt were misunderstood or...

Week 5 of the year is almost over!  I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  How is your year going so far?  I have mine planned out pretty much through the 2 nd quarter, and I’ve got to say, I’m right on track.  One of my bigger goals was to get this one particular certification so I could help those interested in the food service fields, not hospitality, but more on the production,...

Hello again, Marty T Hawkins with Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  I was asked again this week if becoming or accepting a promotion to Supervisor was or would be a good move.  It seems I’m asked that pretty regularly, so I thought we’d talk about Supervision for a few minutes today.  My answer is always unequivocally yes! I’m probably wrong to say that but seriously, if that’s a part of our...

Hey all, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career back at you.  It’s been a busy week.  I’ve been giving some leadership classes, developed a few incentive programs for different things like productivity, attendance and position accomplishments.  I’ll be doing a little traveling over the next couple of weeks, I’m in Nevada today and I’m aiming for Colorado next week, dependent on the w...

Are you ready to kick off 2022, put your plan in action and meet this year’s goals? I’m Marty T Hawkins with Warehouse and Operations as a Career and over the next 52 weeks that is what I’m going to be doing.  I was super excited to hear from so many of you that had accomplished your goals for last year.  Those advancements and promotions kept coming, and the personal accomplishments, wow is...