Short, practical reminders for operators and supervisors. Print them, pin them up, share them at toolbox talks.
Every site has its own rules, but these ten apply everywhere a lift truck runs. Print them, pin them by the key cabinet, and go through them at the next toolbox talk. Check the truck before you use…
Ask a room of forklift operators whether they always wear the seat belt and watch the eyes drop. It is uncomfortable, it slows down getting on and off, and the truck only ever goes ten miles an hour.
There is no national speed limit for forklifts. The truck's top speed, often 12 to 15 mph for a counterbalance, is set by the manufacturer, and the safe speed in any workplace is set by the employer.
A light needs changing at four metres. A pallet is stuck on the top beam. A sign needs fixing to the wall. The forklift is right there, and so is a pallet. Someone climbs on, the operator lifts them…
Parking sounds like the easy part. It is also the part that leaves a truck sitting unattended for hours, with people walking past it and, on some sites, children and members of the public nearby. A…
A counterbalance truck has worse visibility than almost any road vehicle. The mast and carriage sit in front of the operator, the overhead guard pillars block the corners, and a load on the forks can…
A sideshift, a clamp, a rotator or a set of fork extensions each turn one truck into a different truck, with a different capacity and a different set of hazards. The truck's capacity plate applies to…
Three different things keep a forklift safe, and they are regularly confused. Employers who assume the annual service covers the thorough examination, or that the thorough examination covers…
A forklift spends far more of its time reversing than a car does. Every pallet placed means a reverse away from the rack, every load that blocks the view means driving backwards, and in a narrow…
On a two- or three-shift site the same truck is driven by different people all day. Faults that developed on the morning shift are inherited by the afternoon shift, and the truck's history gets lost…
Toolbox talks work when they are short, specific and based on something real. Here is a format that fits into five minutes at the start of a shift, with a topic bank to draw from. One incident (1…
You will have about a second. The instinct to jump is overwhelming, and it is wrong. This is the one drill every operator should have rehearsed in their head so that when it happens the response is…
Tell us which trucks you run and where you are. We train on your site, on your equipment, anywhere in the UK.
