Manufacturers and distributors have until next Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999 to comply with a new OSHA regulation, 29CFR 1910.178 Powered Industrial Truck Operator Training. After years of talking about it, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is responding to calls from the industry to more clearly define rules governing forklift operators.
And while the new rules may mean more work in terms of training employees and documenting procedures, Ken MacDonald, president of M&G Materials Handling Co., in East Providence, welcomes them. M&G Materials distributes, services and rents Yale forklifts. Its clients include American Power Conversion, CVS Corp., and Pepsi Cola.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
MacDonald has contacts with people in a wide array of industries – essentially any that are required to move products. Many of those contacts have been contacting him in recent days.
“I must be getting at least a dozen calls a day about the training,” he said.
MacDonald said it is critical that companies comply with the new OSHA guidelines.
Should a company be involved in an industrial accident involving a forklift, said MacDonald, an OSHA investigation will likely focus on whether the forklift operator has been trained under the new regulation. MacDonald’s assessment of the new guidelines includes the following;
Training must be product specific – every type of forklift product has certain operating parameters and capacity restrictions that must be understood.
Training must be application specific – including job descriptions, weights handled, stacking loads and hazards, such as operating around loading docks.
There should be a practical test and training on the particular type of forklift along with the operation to be performed.
MacDonald recommends that operators keep a daily safety and mechanical checklist.
MacDonald said that to date, there is no certification process in place for trainers. As a result, he said, the key for businesses is to document everything. The additional paperwork, said MacDonald, is a worthwhile investment.
In addition to simply reducing the risk of personal injury, a safe operator, said MacDonald, takes better care of equipment and is less likely to damage either products – or parts of a company’s physical plant.
“There is definitely an economic benefit to the person who owns the equipment,” he said. “And by proper training, you can reduce your exposure to liability.”
