Defence School of Transport

Background

In order for military logisticians to keep up with the ever growing demand on their services, they have employed the Kalmar Rough Terrain Container Handler (RTCH) to manoeuvre containers around ports and operational bases. The fifty-four tonne RTCH is capable of stacking twenty-four tonne containers up to three high, all under the control of a skilled operator’s right hand.

Maintaining this behemoth of a machine is a challenging task bestowed on the engineers of the RAF and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and the training of these maintainers has been an undertaking of PDM Training Solutions Ltd (PDM) since early 2011.

RTCH maintainer training was previously carried out at a facility within RAF Wittering, Lincolnshire. However, the UK MoD later decided to co-locate all RTCH training at the Defence School of Transport (DST), Leconfield in Yorkshire and established a new, purpose built facility for use by PDM and DST training staff. This provided many challenges but the adaptability and professionalism of PDM’s instructors ensured continued, successful and effective delivery of training.

Outcome

The RTCH course has been designed and delivered by PDM to very high standards for a considerable length of time. However, there have been some difficulties to overcome since the move to the DST and this has been achieved by mutual cooperation and the advanced planning and dynamic adaptation of the course programme by PDM instructors.

All students on the DST based courses thoroughly enjoy the training and come out at the end of it with the competence and the confidence to maintain the RTCH when it is deployed on operations. They particularly find the large number and variety of practical tasks both relevant and engaging; even the task of jacking up the colossal machine in order to change one of its two-tonne wheels.