What are commonly known as ‘struck-by’ incidents, where a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle, are the most common cause of major workplace accidents in the UK.
According to the Health & Safety Executive, forklift trucks are responsible for a quarter of all workplace transport accidents. Just such a case reached the courts recently, and resulted in a Liverpool packaging manufacturer receiving a fine of £80,000, plus costs of over £4,000, when a forklift struck an employee, fracturing their pelvis (http://bit.ly/2xVegm8).
Regrettably, every year sees workers killed or injured and companies prosecuted over entirely preventable accidents, where forklifts have been used in an unsafe manner, and a key aspect of helping to prevent this is adequate driver training.
The importance of training
Forklifts are rightly seen as the 'warehouse workhorses' but, like all powerful tools, they can be dangerous if not used carefully – which is why driver training is so important.
No one can operate a forklift truck below the age of 16, while in ports this rises to 18. In terms of physical requirements, each person’s fitness for operating a lift truck should be judged individually, with an emphasis on matching the requirements of a task with the fitness and abilities of the driver.
Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, employers are required to ‘ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including training in the methods which may be adopted when using the work equipment, any risks which such use may entail and precautions to be taken.’
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1974 and 1999 place duties on employers to provide training, information, instruction and supervision to ensure the health and safety of their employees.
This legislation means that initial operator training is, in effect, compulsory. However, this is not the case for any refresher training. As a result, there is an onus on employers and employees to be aware of best practice based on their own initiative.
Driver training can be delivered in-house or through a number of providers, and should always include three stages:
● Basic training;
● Specific job training;
● Familiarisation training – applying what has been learned under normal conditions, actually on the job, but under supervision.
Undergoing training doesn’t result in a forklift ‘driver’s licence’ as such, but the training provider should issue a certificate or document detailing the training given, while the employer is required to give written authority to an employee to operate the equipment safely and correctly. Driver training should not be seen by companies as a cost or as ‘red tape’ but as a vital investment in their business, potentially protecting their bottom line from fines, the company from reputational damage and – worst of all – possible responsibility for any injury or loss of life.
Developing safe systems of traffic management
Hand-in-hand with safe driving practices goes a safe system of traffic management. Warehouse managers and operators should always prioritise developing and maintaining safe systems of traffic management based on three core activities:
● Physically segregating pedestrian and vehicle areas
in the warehouse;
● Training and supervising vehicle operators;
● Raising safety awareness among all pedestrians, employees and visitors.
Although it isn’t a specific legal requirement to segregate pedestrian areas, there is an overall enduring obligation for managers to ‘provide a safe working environment.’
At BITA we believe that materials handling stakeholders have a vital role to play in the process – and must be accountable. We have developed publications such as our safety best-practice booklets for operators, as well as guidance notes for employers and managers, which include details of the latest developments in forklift legislation and best practice.
However, it isn’t just knowing what to do, but actually doing it and building a corporate culture around site safety and security.
The risks around forklift modifications
Properly trained forklift drivers and safe systems of traffic management are vital components in creating a safe warehouse – but what about the trucks themselves? Forklift truck modifications are widely advertised and offered by many companies, but they don’t come without risk –
as a recent presentation to our Truck Suppliers Group (TSG) clearly demonstrated.
Here the point was made that the assessment and implementation of truck modifications is a skilled task requiring detailed and specialised engineering knowledge only available to the truck manufacturer. Truck modifications that are not factory-approved may affect capacity, stability or safety requirements. People making modifications do not realise the consequences, or are not aware of their responsibilities and liabilities, should something go wrong with a modification at a later date.
It’s not as if the regulations are hard to understand. There is a very clear standard for the safety requirements of industrial trucks, BS EN ISO 3691-1:2015 (http://bit.ly/2yRKcpI), which states, in no uncertain terms, in paragraph 6.2.7.1 that “unauthorised truck modification is not permitted”.
Nonetheless, only the most cursory web search is needed to find a range of companies advertising modification changes to forklift trucks, as if this were normal practice and presented no safety hazards whatsoever. Examples of modifications being offered include mast reductions, drive-in racking modifications, and perhaps most disturbingly, truck head guard modifications.
Our TSG presentation included some examples of real concern, for example:
● A cab-pillar section was removed and re-welded as part of a drive-in racking modification – without knowledge of the exact material grade used in manufacture, it would be difficult or impossible to certify the welding and it would be severely doubtful whether the modification would pass an ISO 6055 impact test;
● A counterbalance truck fitted with extended 15ft-long forks, dangerously reducing stability;
● Fork-mounted ‘safe’ access platforms, advertised as though permitted for routine use;
● Hoists mounted to overhead guards, reducing strength, impeding operator visibility, and applying loads outside the design limits.
These were just a few of the issues raised – in addition there are more low-tech and ‘informal’ modifications such as adding additional weight (in the form of drums full of water or toolboxes filled with concrete) to increase the lifting capacity of counterbalance trucks. Even changing tyres to ones that don’t comply with a manufacturer’s specifications, potentially creating instability, can be an unauthorised modification.
We are sure there are many more examples out there, and accidents and deaths have been linked to making unauthorised modifications that affect the safe operation of trucks. Depending on the modification, you may have inadvertently taken on the responsibilities of being the equipment manufacturer, with all the risks of prosecution and redress this entails.
It should be remembered that modification of a forklift truck without the manufacturer’s approval could invalidate the warranty and the CE marking, making it difficult – if not impossible – to re-sell elsewhere.
Designing in safety
Last but by no means least, another way of improving safety is by actually incorporating it at the design stage. To this end BITA organises the Design4Safety awards.
As their name suggests the awards are all about designing safety into products and services with their aim being to highlight the importance of product or service design in improving safety standards. The awards recognise innovative thinking, regardless
of the type or cost of the product or service.
The six award categories acknowledge achievement in automation, industrial vehicles, racking and storage, technology, warehouse infrastructure and goods in/goods out. Among winners in 2016 were Toyota Material Handling UK, which picked up two awards in the automation and technology categories, and Jungheinrich UK Ltd, which took the honours in the industrial vehicles category, with its pedestrian detection and speed control system specially praised for improving operator safety without compromising productivity.
Safety is of utmost importance, and this is the reason BITA inaugurated these awards – to highlight this focus and remind firms of the need to incorporate it into the engineering of their products and services from the concept stage.
Correct driver training, safe traffic systems, and designing with safety in mind from the outset – all have their role to play in creating a safer warehouse. To use an old adage: prevention is better than cure.
BY JAMES CLARK, SECRETARY GENERAL, BRITISH INDUSTRIAL TRUCK ASSOCIATION
