National Forklift Safety Day – June 14 2016
National Forklift Safety Day is sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association. On this day manufacturers call attention to the dangers of forklift operation and seek to educate customers, the public and government officials about safe forklift operation.
Over 190,000 new forklifts were sold in the United States last year. The material handling industry is estimated to be about $165 billion annually. With all of that machinery performing such vital functions, forklift safety is a topic worthy of an annual day of intentional focus by the industry.
Are you ready to focus on forklift safety at your facility? Here’s what we recommend as a good first step.
Choose a Forklift Safety Champion
Your forklift safety program will be more effective if one person oversees the effort. They will need to be:
- Committed to improving the safety of your forklift truck operations
- Willing to dedicate the time to supervise and oversee safety improvements
- Appropriately trained to take on a role of such responsibility
- Competent to identify and assess potential hazards in the workplace
- Confident to lead internal meetings and act appropriately when bad practice occurs
When it comes to ensuring safety, managers have ultimate responsibility. They don’t need to be able to operate a forklift truck, but do need the skills and knowledge to:
- Organize Manager & Supervisor Training
- Understand all tasks performed and the risks involved
- Oversee regular inspections of the site and equipment
- Ensure action is taken to keep both in good shape
- Make sure practices are in place to minimize risk
- Know that different materials are suitable for different tasks and carry different risks
We can help you get your Champion ready with our Train-the-Trainer course, a two-day forklift trainer certification course that will teach and/or refresh them on what is required to be OSHA compliant for forklift operator training. More information is available by clicking here.
Our safety trainer is available to answer your questions about Forklift safety or to participate in an upcoming class. You can contact Jim Skinner directly at (716) 490-2530 or by email jskinner@jitny.com