Every year, thousands of forklift-related injuries occur in the United States. According to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), these injuries are often attributed to a lack of safe operating procedures and safety rule enforcement as well as insufficient training.
To address these problems, OSHA and the Industrial Truck Association have formed an alliance to promote the safe operation of powered industrial trucks and to reduce the number of forklift-related accidents. The alliance will encourage and promote operators’ training and will develop electronic assistance tools on the safe use and operation of the trucks, including issues concerning youth workers.
To help you avoid forklift-related injuries in your workplace, here’s a look at Cal/OSHA’s guidelines for training forklift and other industrial truck operators.
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Who’s Covered
The Cal/OSHA rules apply to all California private, municipal, and state employers who use industrial vehicles that carry, push, pull, lift, stack, or tier material. Employers in agricultural operations are exempt from the rules. Every employee must receive thorough training on how to use the equipment before operating a vehicle.
Training Program Requirements
Your program has to include classroom instruction (such as lecture, discussion, videotape, or written materials), on-the-job training, and evaluations of each worker. All of the following issues need to be covered (unless a particular one isn’t relevant to your workplace):
- Truck-related topics. This includes operating instructions and warnings; truck and auto differences; controls, instrumentation, motor operation, steering, and visibility; forklift operation; vehicle capacity and stability; maintenance and inspection; and refueling and battery charging.
- Workplace topics. This includes surface conditions, narrow aisles, hazardous locations, ramps, and slopes; load composition, stability, manipulation, stacking, and unstacking; pedestrian traffic; ventilation; and other potentially hazardous conditions.
An operator who has previously received training in one of these topics doesn’t need additional instruction in that area if an evaluation indicates the person is operating the truck safely.
Mandatory Reevaluation
You’re also required to reevaluate a truck operator’s performance at least once every three years, so it’s important to set up a calendar system to keep track of the dates. And refresher training is required under each of the following circumstances:
- If the employee operates the vehicle unsafely, is in an accident or near-miss, or is shown by evaluation to be operating the truck unsafely.
- If the employee is assigned to drive a different type of truck.
- If a workplace condition change could affect safe truck operation.
Employer Certification
The rules mandate you certify in writing that you have performed all required training, evaluations, and reevaluations for each worker. The certification must include the worker’s name, the dates of the training/evaluation, and the name of the person who conducted it.
Penalties
Although the rules don’t specify penalties for noncompliance, Cal/OSHA can impose steep fines of up to $7,000 for each general violation or $25,000 for serious violations. Jail time is also possible.