We know it’s an ongoing aspect of your occupational safety measures, but sometimes we all need a little reminder of why, for everyone, forklift safety is a process—and an important one at that.
OSHA has been around since the early seventies, but it wasn’t until 1998 that the original statement in the Occupational Safety and Health Act concerning the required training of Powered Industrial Trucks (PITs) was amended to standardize forklift training. The catalyst for this update was the release of 1995 statistics that named forklift accidents as the number one cause of workplace deaths. According to STAFDA, more than 100 people were killed and 38,000+ were injured in 1995 alone.
Due to stricter training requirements, forklift injuries have dramatically declined in the last two decades. But, there are still areas for improvement. Those requirements can strain smaller companies. Training must incorporate both classroom and practical lessons by a certified trainer. For smaller companies, this usually means bringing in someone from the outside to handle it. Though the instructors will be certified, they likely have no experience with your facility, and therefore, training is not tailored to your day-in, day-out work experience.
If anything changes concerning industry operating standards, it will probably call for immediate retraining. If the condition of the work environment or loads change, you’ll need to retrain. And even if you maintain consistency in job responsibilities, work environment and industry standards, mandatory recertifications must occur every three years.
To this day, forklifts are notoriously unstable. Make an attempt to execute a turn at speed with a raised load, and the varying center of gravity can cause it to flip. When you consider that even the smallest forklifts weigh more than your car, high standards for operating and continual—albeit, perhaps inconvenient—training certainly makes good sense.
Strong Man Safety Products stands by our 30 years of safety. Go Strong. All Year Long