The lift truck is a dangerous machine. The latest data have proven that more than 100 employees are killed in some form of lift truck accident. An extra 95,000 workers are hurt on the job every year as well, using these heavy pieces of industrial machinery.
Unfortunately, most of the fatalities are because of forklift turnovers. The second highest percentage of fatalities is due to being crushed between a forklift and another surface. The next highest cause of death is being struck by the lift truck itself and lastly, getting hit from falling objects due to a dropped load is the last statistic. Every injury or death is quite frightening and awful due to the capability and immense weight of these equipment.
Who Must Perform the Training?
All teaching and evaluation for lift truck operation needs to be taught by appropriately trained instructors. These trainers must have the knowledge and experience to teach potential operators the required skills to assess their competency after that. Some examples of a qualified trainer include a person who has a certificate, specialized degree or professional status in their possession, or somebody who has extensive training, knowledge and experience using lift trucks. A good candidate has plenty of practice and has shown the ability to train and assess industrial truck drivers.
If the employer does not wish to perform the training himself, there are many resources accessible for them to select from. For example, they can hire in local health and safety organizations, like for instance the National Safety Council local chapters, truck manufacturers, or private training consultants who specialize in powered industrial trucks. There are normally local vocational and trade schools which will be happy to offer some great resources.
There are many web sites on the World Wide Web which are devoted to lift truck safety. Private businesses could be found on line which offer lift truck safety training services, like videos and written programs. Most safety videos can either be purchased or leased or rented. One really essential factor to think about is that simply by showing your workers a video or a series of videos about forklift safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Subsequent training and skill of the new drivers has to be conveyed and evaluated by a particular way in order to ensure the full training has been acquired.
When operators have passed their training requirements, they would be given a lift truck license that enables them to operate a lift truck. Valid lift truck licenses are a requirement by organizations to be able to keep everybody at the workplace really safe.