Five safety procedures to protect five lives

Five is the fatal number. According to the latest statistics, around 1,300 employees suffer life-changing injuries due to forklift accidents every year in the UK. In fact, over other forms of workplace transport, forklifts are becoming the most dangerous amongst them. As a result, every working day, five employees are irreversibly injured from forklift-related accidents that could have been prevented. Thus, prevention is key as it is not the equipment itself but human mistakes what it causes most of the accidents. In view of that, safety working procedures must be constantly reviewed and updated in order to prevent changing people’s lives forever. In this article, we give you five safety procedures to keep your workplace safe and stay within the law.

Thorough Examinations for forklift safety

A Thorough examination is a key safety inspection required by the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). Thus, its main purpose is to detect any defects that are caused by the regular use of lifting equipment. This examination must be undergone periodically and by a competent person.

Forklift Driver Training

Would you imagine driving a car without a driving licence? No. So that should not happen when driving a forklift either. On the one hand, the law requires such training to be done. On the other hand, you would be putting your colleague lives at risk. There are many companies such as Ful-ton Forklifts that provide forklift driving training courses from beginner to expert. Regarding that, they may vary in length depending on the objectives to be covered, the trainee/instructor ratio and the previous experience of the trainee. However, they are one of the main skills that employees operating with lifting equipment must-have.

Workplace properly marked

Sometimes the responsibility of an accident is not from the driver but from other employees. It must be remembered that safety is not the responsibility of those working at the workshop but of everyone at the company. Then the first step would be to mark the specific areas on which lift trucks operate. Secondly, all members of the company must respect and follow them when approaching those areas in order to ensure everybody’s safety.

Safety procedures during operation

Apart from prior and post actions, you should keep in mind several procedures while operating with forklifts.

In spite of a workplace properly marked, it is important to watch the speed limit, keep your sight to the driving direction and make use of the horn at intersections and pedestrians. In other words, it’s vital you stay focus on what you are doing so you can react quickly if anything happens unexpectedly.

Keep your business up to date

The importance of safety in the workplace keeps this topic on top of the forklift industry matters. As there are human lives at risk, actions need to be carefully planned, taken and updated frequently. Safety procedures should be addressed by different types of business among which are included manufacturers, forklift dealers and business that use lift trucks on a regular basis. With that in mind, there are several forklift truck associations that provide the latest safety trends that businesses need to avoid obsolete practices.

National Forklift Safety Convention 2019

October is the month that has been chosen to celebrate the FLTA’s National Forklift Safety Convention 2019. In fact, to be precise, the event will take place on 30^th October at the Heart of England Conference and Events Centre in Coventry, a city in central England. As the main goal, this safety event pursues to highlight the importance of clear communication amongst managing behaviour to transform onsite operations. In view of that, a series of enlightening presentations will focus on tips and advice in order to improve management skills and to ensure that managers are updated with the latest practices and procedures.