I was too stupid to do drive the forklift when I played this as a kid. Maybe I was missing something obvious but I recall getting stuck in the game and just doing my forklift job so poorly that I was not allowed to advance for months of in game time.
I recall the controls took some getting used to. I believe the left/right controls actually started movement of a slow turning wheel on the forklift that moved at a constant rate that then turned the wheels, as opposed to direct/real-time input like racing games.