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China Southern forklift, pallet builders win Hactl match

THE winner of this year's Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) International's Forklift and Pallet Building Competition is China Southern Cargo.

The contest attracted teams from Air Canada Cargo, Air China Cargo, Air France Cargo, China Southern Cargo, IAG Cargo, Japan Airlines, KLM, MAB Kargo, Nippon Cargo Airlines and SF Airlines. They collectively competed for all four awards.

This year the layout of the competition courts was made tighter and more complex, placing additional demands on forklift drivers to manoeuvre safely, while collecting cargo in the correct order to complete the pallet building stage of the competition.

The pallet building competition was also made more challenging, with the introduction of a 125?x 88?pallet, which had to be loaded with cargo configured with two upper surface contours.

The importance of close collaboration between the forklift drivers and pallet builders was reflected in the Overall Champion award, which was presented to the team with the lowest points deducted in the forklift and pallet building sections of the competition when both sets of results were combined.

China Southern Cargo won the Overall Champion award; the forklift competition was won by Japan Airlines; the pallet building competition was won by China Southern Cargo; and the Forklift Driving Safety Award went to Japan Airlines.

In line with other Hactl events, the competition promoted aspects of Hong Kong. On this occasion the Hong Kong Rope Skipping Club team, which won the world championships in Sweden in 2016, put on a show, and a local band playing guitars made out recycled wine cases entertained guests.

Said Hactl finance director Amy Lam: "This is our 11th year of holding this competition. As always, we used it to foster professionalism and safety in the industry, but we also wanted to promote sustainability and corporate social responsibility."