The Industrial Truck Association (ITA) created National Forklift Safety Day as an opportunity to educate customers, policymakers, and government officials about the safe use of forklifts and the importance of effective operator and pedestrian training. Those topics were front and center at ITA’s 11th annual National Forklift Safety Day program, held June 11 in Washington, D.C.
The public event kicked off with introductions by ITA President Brian Feehan and Toyota Material Handling North America President and CEO Brett Wood, who is serving his second term as ITA board chair. They were followed by a panel of speakers who addressed a variety of forklift safety-related topics. The following are some highlights from those presentations:
Reginald Jackson, of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Office of General Industry and Agricultural Enforcement, emphasized the agency’s mission to ensure “equal access to the highest safety standards” for all workers and to “eliminate barriers that make it harder for some workers to be safe.” Everyone has the right to representation in health and safety matters and to fair treatment by their employers, regardless of the size of the company or the industry they work in, he said; accordingly, OSHA is “embedding equity in everything we do.”
Jackson also spoke about National Emphasis Programs (NEPs) that target specific areas for more intense scrutiny. One example is the NEP on warehousing and distribution center operations, which has opened 623 inspections since it went into effect in July 2023, he noted. The most common violations to date, he said, have been unsafe electrical usage; facility maintenance issues such as blocked exits; inadequate or improper forklift safety training; and lack of seatbelts. A separate NEP targeting outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards has been very active, initiating more than 4,300 inspections since it launched in April 2022, he said.
Cesar Jimenez, vice president of regulatory affairs, product planning, product assurance, and automated solutions, Toyota Material Handling Inc., is this year’s National Forklift Safety Day chair. He began with an overview of ITA’s engineering committee’s role in helping to develop and update forklift safety standards. He then segued to safety technology, emphasizing that it is an adjunct to, and not a substitute for, proper operator training.
After touching on available technologies such as blue and red lights, proximity sensing, and forklift-mounted cameras, Jimenez offered some thoughts about the future. While some current safety technologies will become common in the next five to 10 years, he would like to see some become standard, rather than optional, “similar to what happened in the auto industry.” Jimenez also expects to see new artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies that can, for example, anticipate collisions and provide predictive analytics for lift truck maintenance.
Larry Pearlman, president and founder, SafetyAnd Consulting Associates, called safety “a head and heart journey” that requires leadership, technical expertise, and a culture that values people throughout the organization. A safety culture, he explained, incorporates elements that are tangible (management systems and key performance indicators, hazard management processes, and organizational structure and accountabilities) and intangible (safety leadership and commitment, behaviors, and competencies). He recommended engaging with the procurement organization to make clear that paying more for good equipment design and safety-assist technology can produce a measurable “return on risk reduction,” as he put it.
While safety must be a companywide priority, Pearlman said, frontline leaders have the greatest day-to-day impact on safety; a single decision or act can have a widespread impact. Supervisors who solicit feedback from forklift operators in a targeted but supportive and conversational way enhance operators’ engagement, bringing measurable improvements in safety performance, he said.
Ajay Bhardwaj, director, environmental health and safety (EHS) – Americas at Adient, a manufacturer of automotive seating running approximately 800 powered industrial trucks, described his company’s approach to safety, which encompasses an array of strategies and policies. A partial list includes:
- Ensure that lessons are learned from incidents by mandating the sharing of information among all facilities. This includes discussions of the causes of, appropriate responses to, and prevention of incidents.
- Adjust metrics to reflect changing circumstances and priorities. “The problems and opportunities of today are not those of the future,” Bhardwaj said.
- Embed safety into functional responsibilities. For example, packaging design, industrial engineering, warehouse and material handling layout, and other functional areas have “intertwined responsibilities and oversight” that influence each other’s performance, and thus impact safety, Bhardwaj said.
- Carefully evaluate technology that can reduce risk. Adient gives “honest feedback” to vendors and is willing to ask for modifications or walk away if the technology does not fit the company’s needs, Bhardwaj said.
A video recording of the June 11 program is available on ITA’s website for on-demand viewing at no charge. To watch the video, go to www.indtrk.org/national-forklift-safety-day.
Approval of California’s zero emissions forklift rule may be near
In a separate meeting, ITA General Counsel Gary Cross provided members with an update on a California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed regulation that would require most forklifts operating in the state to produce zero emissions. The rule would phase out sales and operation of certain types of internal combustion equipment and phase in electric and hydrogen fuel cell equipment over a period of years. (DC Velocity reported on the proposed rule in 2021.) It includes a number of exceptions, such as for diesel-powered equipment and specified outdoor applications. ITA and CARB have held a series of discussions for the past three-plus years; the state agency “has agreed with key ITA positions” and made some related modifications to the proposed final rule, which will likely be adopted later this year, according to Cross. CARB will hold a public hearing on June 27, which interested parties can attend in person or via Zoom. DC Velocity will publish an update on the main provisions of the final rule in July.
For more than 70 years, the Industrial Truck Association has represented industrial truck manufacturers and suppliers of component parts and accessories that conduct business in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization maintains an influential voice in international standards development for the industry. ITA also advances engineering practices to promote safe products, disseminates statistical marketplace information, and provides industry forums for learning and networking.
