The lift truck is a dangerous machinery. The latest data have proven that over 100 workers are killed in some kind of forklift accident. An additional 95,000 workers are injured on the job each year as well, utilizing these heavy pieces of industrial machinery.
Sadly, nearly all 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 third highest cause of death is being struck by the forklift itself and lastly, getting hit from falling items because of a dropped load is the last statistic. Every injury or death is quite awful and gruesome because of the immense weight and ability of these equipment.
Who Must Conduct the Training?
All teaching and evaluation for lift truck operation has to be taught by correctly trained instructors. These trainers must have the experience and knowledge to teach potential operators the required skills to evaluate their competence afterwards. Some examples of a skilled trainer include a person who has a license, certified degree or professional status in their possession, or who has extensive training, experience and knowledge utilizing forklifts. A good candidate has a lot of practice and has demonstrated the capability to teach and evaluate industrial truck drivers.
There are resources available to pick from if their employer does not wish to perform the training themselves. For example, they could hire in local health and safety organizations, like truck manufacturers, the National Safety Council local chapters, or private teaching consultants who specialize in powered industrial trucks. There are usually local trade and vocational schools that will be very happy to provide several great resources.
There are a lot of web sites on the World Wide Web who are dedicated to forklift safety. Private companies can be found on line that offer forklift safety training services, like written programs and videos. Most safety videos can either be rented or leased or bought. One vital factor to think about is that simply by showing your employees a series of videos or a video on forklift safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Subsequent training and skill of the new operators must be conveyed and evaluated by a particular way so as to ensure the full training has been acquired.
When the driver has successfully passed all of the required training, a forklift license will be given and they would legally be able to operate a lift truck. Valid lift truck licenses are a requirement by organizations in order to keep everyone at the workplace really safe.