The lift truck is a dangerous machine. The most recent statistics have shown that over 100 employees are killed in some kind of forklift mishap. 95,000 more employees are injured on the job every year too, utilizing these heavy pieces of industrial machines.
Sadly, nearly all of the fatalities are due to forklift turnovers. The second highest percentage of fatalities is due to being crushed between a lift truck and another surface. The third highest cause of death is being struck by the forklift itself and last but not least, getting hit from falling items due to a dropped load is the last statistic. Each injury or fatality is quite frightening and terrible due to the ability and immense weight of these equipment.
Who Must Conduct the Training?
All teaching and assessment for forklift operation has to be trained by appropriately trained instructors. These trainers should have the knowledge and experience to train potential operators the necessary skills to assess their competency afterwards. Some examples of a qualified trainer include a person who has a license, professional status or certified degree in their possession, or somebody who has extensive training, experience and knowledge with forklifts. A good candidate has lots of experience and has shown the ability to evaluate and train drivers of industrial trucks.
If the employer does not want to perform the training himself, there are numerous resources accessible for them to select from. Like for instance, they can 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 normally local trade and vocational schools which will be happy to offer some great resources.
The World Wide Web is full of web sites committed to the safety of forklifts. There are also private companies which provide lift truck safety training services, such as written programs and videos. Most safety videos can either be leased or rented or purchased. One very essential thing to think about is that simply by showing your workers a series of videos or a video about lift truck safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Succeeding training and skill of the new operators must be conveyed and evaluated by a specific method in order to make sure that the full training has been obtained.
Once the operator has successfully passed all of the required training, a forklift certificate would be given and they will legally be able to drive a forklift. Valid lift truck certificates are a requirement by organizations in order to keep everybody at the workplace as safe as possible.