Ref PR339 Date: 16th July 2014

Briggs Equipment supports youngest ever apprentice in the ancient ceremony of Cart Marking

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Cannock-based materials handling services specialist Briggs Equipment is supporting the historic ceremony of Cart Marking (July 16), by providing a forklift truck for the procession and giving the youngest apprentice of the Carmen the chance to drive it.

Cart Marking is run by the Worshipful Company of Carmen on behalf of the Corporation of the City of London and will see 50 commercial vehicles, including horse-drawn carts, steam-driven vehicles, veteran and vintage lorries plus modern trucks and tractor units branded with a year licence letter. Branded vehicles are entitled to ply for trade in the City of London in the old school of the guilds. The ceremony takes place in the Guildhall Yard and branding the vehicles this year is the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Fiona Woolf.

Briggs Equipment's forklift truck will be driven by 17-year old Caitland Lomas, who lives in and attends school in Derbyshire. Last summer she stepped out of the classroom to take her RTITB forklift truck licence at the earliest age of 16 and also achieved the BTEC QCF Level 2 warehouse and storage qualification with City & Guilds.

At a familiarisation day at Derby University, Buxton & Leek College logistics site, Caitland got to grips with a Yale electric forklift truck supplied by Briggs Equipment.College logistics tutor Tony Dean ran her through the chicanes to sharpen her steering skills and they then spent some time on the concrete yard to familiarise Caitland with the bumpy ride she can expect in the Guildhall Yard. Then, during a visit to Briggs Equipment's HQ and national support centre in Orbital Way, Cannock, on July 10, it was time to take the controls of the forklift truck Caitland will drive in the Cart Marking ceremony.

Briggs Equipment has pulled out all the stops for the young Carmen apprentice, preparing a diesel forklift truck with a Union Jack flag wrap for the occasion. The truck has a weather protected cab, heater and a formal handbrake system, which Caitland has become familiar with, and will carry a pallet load as a safety measure.

Caitland became an apprentice of the Worshipful Company of Carmen at the age of 14. At the Cart Marking ceremony she will hold the cart board of her apprentice master Lt Colonel Paul Holder, Royal Logistics Corps, marked 476 and expects the forklift truck to be brand marked with the year letter W for 2014.

"Our involvement in Cart Marking represents a number of firsts, since it is not only the first time that a forklift truck has been eligible to be marked, but Caitland is also the first and youngest apprentice of Carmen ever to take part and she is driving our vehicle," says Briggs Equipment's national aftersales manager Dean Mansell.

"What with the pageantry of the City of London ceremony coupled with general transport industry excitement for an event that puts the commercial vehicles that work for hire providing logistics support across the UK under the spotlight, Cart Marking promises to be a very special day out."

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Caption: Seventeen-year-old Caitland Lomas, the youngest ever apprentice of the Carmen, will drive a forklift truck supplied by Briggs Equipment in the ancient ceremony of Cart Marking.

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Media contact:

Martine Layland

CHANGEWORKS Communications
t:  + 44 (0) 1785 247588
e: mlayland@changeworkscom.co.uk

Company Contact:

Scott Bullock
Briggs Equipment
Orbital Way
Cannock
WS11 8XW
T: 01543 430 455
W: www.briggsequipment.co.uk
E:scott.bullock@briggsequipment.co.uk