2012 to be 'Year of Safety'for Toyota

Toyota Material Handling UK has launched 'Taking Care with Toyota', a campaign featuring a number of initiatives and events for customers and prospects, as well as its own team which are designed to help reduce injury and accidents in the workplace.

Recent research commissioned by Toyota has indicated that safety remains a major influence in product purchasing. The recent industrial trucks survey by Redshift Research stated health and safety as one of the top 6 critical factors companies consider when acquiring a new truck, demonstrating the importance of safety for material handling equipment users.

Tony Wallis, operations director said: “Toyota has always positioned itself as a provider of safe products and services, but we believe promoting safety in the workplace goes beyond providing our customers with the safest trucks, it also requires that we demonstrate to companies the benefits of training their people and putting processes in place to create a culture of safety.”

He added: “In the challenging economic climate, it has become more important for companies to focus on safety, not only to protect their workers, but also to reduce costs relating to injury and damage. As a leader in the industry, we are committed to giving people as much support as we can to work in a safe manner.”

Throughout the year members of the Toyota team will be attending Health and Safety events in North, South and Midlands, performing demonstrations of equipment which help reduce strain and distributing resources to aid best practice, including the Toyota Manual Handling Guide.

Internally Toyota is focusing on providing its team members with information about healthier living and safety in the workplace and having dedicated areas in the depots focused on safety. Toyota has started this process by creating a Safety Dojo at one of its main depots in Leicester. The Safety Dojo is a training area where visitors and employees can learn safety awareness and practices with a hands-on approach.

In addition to the UK Year of Safety, Toyota Material Handling has extended its partnership with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EUOSHA) as an official partner for the Healthy Workplaces campaign for the second year. It joined forces with EU-OSHA in 2011 to promote the importance of maintenance and safe maintenance practices across Europe.

Forklift challenge
Toyota Material Handling UK has also launched a 'Forklift Challenge' mobile application specially created to raise awareness about the capabilities of the Toyota System of Active Stability (SAS) and how it can lower costs in business.

The game allows you to climb into the driver's seat and experience the type of work that takes place in material handling - as well as the costs incurred by unsafe practices.

The goal for players of the 'Forklift Challenge' is to achieve maximum productivity while performing material handling tasks, in the quickest possible way. On each lap, there are several locations where the player has to safely pick up and drop off cargo - the SAS features must be activated to prevent accidents or load loss. Get it wrong and drivers might incur additional damage costs, or even be forced to take a penalty lap and lose productivity.