Forklift Safety Is Serious Business

When it comes to forklifts, safety needs to be top priority. Yet every year , thousands of people are injured and even killed while driving or being around forklifts.

Forklift safety is serious business:

• About 20,000 workers are seriously injured in forklift-related accidents every year in the US.
• 25% employees are seriously injured in warehouse forklift-related incidents in th US every year.
• And about 100 employees are killed in warehouse forklift-related incidents in the US every year.

When it comes to forklift safety, education is the key to success. And it’s not only a good idea, it’s also the law.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires that any company using a forklift provide safety training and certification for anybody who will be operating the vehicle.

While the federal agency doesn’t specifically say what kind of training or how many hours of education are required, the burden of making sure that drivers are knowledgeable about the safe operation of forklifts falls squarely on the company.

Federal inspectors probably aren’t going to make surprise visits to your business to see if you have certification that the training has taken place (although you never can know for sure), but it’s a sure bet that if there is a forklift accident at your business and a worker is injured or even killed, OSHA will be there demanding that you prove you trained your workers on how to safely operate a forklift.

If you don’t have adequate certification in your employee files, you could be subject to fines and even civil and criminal prosecution.

There are many consulting companies who will come in and provide forklift safety training for you. They can even provide testing and certification that will satisfy OSHA’s requirements. But these tend to be costly.

Another option is to purchase training programs that you can use to train your employees on the safe operation of forklifts. These comprehensive training platforms use videos, audio files and even computer websites to give your employees all the information they need to safely operate their vehicles so they can keep your employees, and your business, out of harm’s way.

Forklift safety is something that need to be top priority for any business that uses these helpful, efficient vehicles in their daily operations.

Using affordable, practical and efficient training programs is one of the easiest ways to protect your business.

It just makes good business sense.