In 2009 the championship was expanded in both reach and format. The national final was held in Melbourne at the Safety Show and Materials Handling Exhibition. The event attracts approximately 10,000 visitors over three days. A number of major companies saw the forklift championship as a way of creating awareness of forklift safety in their workplace and a change agent to embrace new OHS forklift legislative requirements.   The licencing of plant (forklifts) around Australia was in transition from the Accredited Provider system to the Vocational Educational and Training sector. This national initiative saw the introduction of a five year photo ID licence in NSW and different formal training processes in Queensland and Victoria. 

 

The organisers saw a number of large companies come onboard with the championship nominating up to 30 contestants from the same work site. Two types of forklifts were to be used in the 2009 competition, a reach truck and a counterbalanced forklift as user trends were changing. Both forklift types require a LF class licence so the OHS driving requirement was the same.   Counterbalanced forklifts are still the most popular type of equipment used in transport and distribution in Australia and will be predominated in the championship.