The lift truck is a dangerous machinery. The newest statistics have shown that more than 100 employees are killed in some form of lift truck accident. An additional 95,000 employees are hurt on the job each year too, utilizing these heavy pieces of industrial machines.
Unfortunately, nearly all of the fatalities are due to forklift turnovers. The next highest percentage of fatalities is due to being crushed between a lift truck and another surface. The third highest cause of fatality is being struck by the forklift itself and last but not least, getting hit from falling things because of a dropped load is the last statistic. Every fatality or injury is quite gruesome and terrible due to the capability and immense weight of these equipment.
Who Must Conduct the Training?
All training and evaluation for lift truck operation needs to be trained by correctly trained instructors. These trainers must have the experience and knowledge to teach potential operators the required skills to assess their competence afterwards. Some examples of a skilled trainer consist of a person who has a license, certified degree or professional standing in their possession, or someone who has extensive training, knowledge and experience using forklifts. A good candidate has a lot of practice and has shown the ability to teach and assess industrial truck operators.
If the employer does not wish to perform the training himself, there are numerous resources accessible for them to pick from. For instance, they can hire in local health and safety organizations, including truck manufacturers, the National Safety Council local chapters, or private teaching consultants who specialize in powered industrial trucks. There are normally local vocational and trade schools which will be very glad to provide several great resources.
There are numerous websites on the Internet which are devoted to forklift safety. Private companies could be found on line which provide forklift safety training services, like written programs and videos. Nearly all safety videos can either be purchased or rented or leased. One essential factor to take into account is that simply by showing your employees a series of videos or a video about forklift safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Subsequent training and skill of the new drivers must be conveyed and assessed by a specific method in order to ensure the complete training has been acquired.
When the operator has successfully passed all of the required training, a lift truck certificate would be given and they would legally be able to drive a forklift. Valid lift truck licenses are a requirement by organizations so as to keep everyone at the workplace really safe.