Audits offer holistic view of forklift safety

To explain the issue, let’s start with a site where every operator has been fully trained. Excellent… but who is monitoring their performance day-to-day, in a real world context? They may have been individually audited but the chances are that, out in the real world they are getting into bad habits… cutting corners… turning with raised loads, speeding, failing to wear seatbelts, allowing general detritus to litter the work floor… the list is endless.

Why? Because nobody has assessed the operation as a whole. No-one has considering how forklift operators work on a day-to-day basis, influenced by pick-rate bonuses, time constraints and environmental factors. And, with as many as 90% of forklift managers attending training courses admitting they have no knowledge of their responsibilities with regards to forklift operations, is it any wonder that standards slip?

But it needn’t be that way. Independent audits provide a simple, economically sound solution to the problem. Taking a holistic view of forklift operations and best practice, these evaluations grant invaluable insights which have the potential to save lives and significantly enhance a company’s bottom line.

The value of safety

An independent audit takes a holistic approach, considering all factors in forklift safety, across all areas of the site – from racking to loading bays, hand pallets to high level order pickers… from segregation to floor conditions, from speed restrictions to one way driving circuits. It doesn’t focus solely on trainers or operators, as training audits do, but considers workers on foot, managers, supervisors and site visitors, too.
That’s not all; environmental factors, application requirements, specific equipment, time constraints, site layouts, and other variables are all considered when making recommendations for improvement.

It can be seen with alarming regularity that unsafe and potentially dangerous practices are taking place in the background while operator/instructor training is taking place on customers’ premises.

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As a result, more and more companies are asking specialist organisations like mine to examine their sites. And why wouldn’t they? With the significant sums of money businesses stand to save from improving their operations, the cost of an audit is almost insignificant. When I put it to one client that an annual audit may be too frequent the reply was that each of my visits paid for itself many times over in terms of improved efficiency and reduced damage.

AITT recently conducted a compliance audit of a company that had shown great commitment to safety by training all their managers in supervising fork lift operations. However, our visit revealed that, in fact, 75% of those staff them had since left, leaving a significant gap in the company’s culture and skills base.
It’s all too easy to assume that all is well in the workplace, simply because nothing has gone wrong… yet. But when accidents do happen, the costs can be high.
A compliance audit will make sure that your business is doing everything it can to ensure equipment is used correctly, goods are unscathed and, most importantly, workers go home safely at the end of their shift. 

While you may not be able to put a price on safety, the cost of such an examination is invariably significantly less than the savings companies make as a result. With such gains to be made, the question is not ‘Why would you want an audit?’ but ‘Why wouldn’t you want one?’