Never Lose Focus Of The Importance Of Forklift Courses In Ensuring Forklift Truck Safety
Your company uses forklifts and you’ve sent your drivers on forklift course, but is this a once-off effort or something your company is committed to in an ongoing manner? Your drivers might have received an initial certificate, but how many years have passed since then? And have you hired new drivers without arranging for them to receive a new certificate? All drivers must renew their licenses every three years and once a person has left a job, their license can’t be transferred to their new one as their training was undertaken on those makes, models and loads of forklift. It’s why as a business owner you can never afford to lose focus when it comes to maintaining forklift truck safety through training.
- The Importance Of Training
A Kiwi transport and logistics company has recently been fined almost $300,000 after it was established that a truck driver was harmed by a forklift on their premises. It was said that the site saw dozens of forklifts in operation at any given time and that drivers frequently overloaded their forklifts to the point where their visibility and ability to manage traffic was compromised. While the fine itself might not seem huge, the negative publicity and repercussions of the accident will no doubt impact this business for years to come.
- Prevent Overloading Accidents
A simple forklift training course and adherence to it would easily have prevented such an incident from occurring. A core element of the training syllabus deals with how to handle loaded and unloaded masses as well as how to load and unload the forklift itself. The driver is educated in detail on the forklift’s capacity and how to manage its centre of gravity and load centre so that it can always make controlled movements, even when fully loaded. They’re also schooled in the correct stacking and unstacking procedures and how to deal with a poorly stacked load before moving the machine.
These all might seem like minor points to remember but even the most experienced forklift driver can forget them if they’ve done things differently at another company or if they haven’t attended training in a long time. It’s why investing in regular refresher and comprehensive forklift courses for your staff members is something your business should never lose sight of.
