Lift trucks are really dangerous piece of machinery. Statistics by OSHA show that approximately 100 warehouse employees are killed each year in forklift mishaps while they are operating them. An additional 95,000 workers are injured on the job each and every year as well, using 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 third highest cause of fatality is being struck by the forklift itself and last of all, getting hit from falling objects because of a dropped load is the last statistic. Every injury or fatality is quite awful and frightening due to the immense weight and ability of these machinery.
Who Must Perform the Training?
All teaching and evaluation for lift truck operation has to be taught by correctly trained instructors. These trainers should have the knowledge and experience to train potential operators the required skills to assess their competency afterwards. Some examples of a skilled trainer comprise a person who has a certificate, certified degree or professional standing in their possession, or someone who has extensive training, knowledge and experience utilizing lift trucks. A good candidate has a lot of experience and has shown the ability to teach and evaluate operators of industrial trucks.
If the employer does not want to perform the training himself, there are many resources available for them to pick from. For example, they can employ in local health and safety organizations, like the National Safety Council local chapters, truck manufacturers, or private teaching consultants who specialize in powered industrial trucks. There are often local vocational and trade schools which will be glad to provide some great resources.
There are a lot of websites on the World Wide Web that are dedicated to lift truck safety. Private companies could be found on line which offer forklift safety training services, like written programs and videos. The majority of safety videos could either be leased or rented or bought. One very important factor to take into account is that simply by showing your workers a series of videos or a video about forklift safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Subsequent training and knowledge of the new operators should be conveyed and evaluated by a particular method in order to ensure the full training has been acquired.
Once drivers have passed their training requirements, they would receive a lift truck certificate which allows them to drive a lift truck. Valid lift truck certificates are a requirement by organizations so as to keep everybody at the workplace as safe as possible.