The forklift is a dangerous machinery. The newest data have shown that over 100 employees are killed in some form of lift truck accident. 95,000 more employees are injured on the job every year as well, using these heavy pieces of industrial machinery.
Most fatalities have been due to lift truck turnovers. Being crushed between the forklift and another surface is the next highest percentage of fatalities. The third highest cause of fatality is being struck by the lift truck itself and last of all, getting hit from falling things because of a dropped load is the last statistic. Each injury or death is quite awful and frightening because of the ability and immense weight of these machinery.
Who Should Perform the Training?
All teaching and assessment 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 necessary skills to evaluate their competence after that. Several examples of a qualified trainer comprise a person who has a certificate, specialized degree or professional standing in their possession, or somebody who has extensive training, knowledge and experience using forklifts. A good candidate has lots of experience and has demonstrated the capability to assess and train industrial truck operators.
There are resources accessible to choose from if their employer does not want to perform the training themselves. 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 vocational and trade schools which will be glad to provide some great resources.
The World Wide Web is full of websites committed to the safety of forklifts. There are also private businesses that offer lift truck safety training services, like videos and written programs. Most safety videos can either be leased or rented or bought. One important factor to consider 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 should be conveyed and evaluated by a particular way in order to make certain that the complete training has been obtained.
Once drivers have passed their training requirements, they will be given a lift truck certificate which allows them to drive a forklift. Valid lift truck licenses are a requirement by organizations so as to keep everybody at the workplace as safe as possible.