Lift trucks are very dangerous piece of machinery. Data by OSHA show that approximately 100 warehouse workers are killed each year in lift truck accidents while they are operating them. An extra 95,000 workers are injured on the job each year too, utilizing these heavy pieces of industrial equipment.
Nearly all fatalities have been because of forklift turnovers. Being crushed between the forklift and another surface is the second highest percentage of fatalities. The next highest cause of fatality is being struck by the lift truck itself and last but not least, getting hit from falling objects because of a dropped load is the last statistic. Each and every injury or death is quite terrible and gruesome due to the capability and immense weight of these equipment.
Who Should Conduct the Training?
All teaching and evaluation for lift truck operation needs to be trained by appropriately trained instructors. These trainers must have the experience and knowledge to teach potential operators the required skills to assess their competency afterwards. Some examples of a skilled trainer include an individual who has a certificate, professional status or specialized degree in their possession, or somebody who has extensive training, experience and knowledge utilizing lift trucks. A good candidate has a lot of experience and has demonstrated the ability to assess and train industrial truck operators.
There are resources accessible to select from if their employer does not want to perform the training themselves. Like for example, they could hire in local health and safety organizations, including truck manufacturers, the National Safety Council local chapters, or private training consultants who specialize in powered industrial trucks. There are often local trade and vocational schools which would be very glad to offer several great resources.
There are lots of websites on the World Wide Web who are committed to lift truck safety. Private companies can be found on line who offer lift truck safety training services, such as written programs and videos. Nearly all safety videos could either be purchased or leased or rented. One essential thing to take into consideration is that simply by showing your workers a video or a series of videos on forklift safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Subsequent training and skill of the new operators must be conveyed and assessed by a particular method in order to make sure that the full training has been acquired.
When operators have passed their training requirements, they will be given a lift truck certificate that permits them to drive a lift truck. Valid lift truck certificates are a requirement by organizations in order to keep everyone at the workplace really safe.