Toyota boosts safety awareness

Operator safety in material handling operations is vitally important. There are over 800 accidents a year in the UK involving forklift trucks so when you consider all the additional warehouse equipment available (Reach trucks, order pickers, powered pallet trucks and hand pallet trucks) the number could actually run into the thousands.

Even when an incident does not cause a personal injury, it can cause damage to trucks, infrastructure and goods which will reduce productivity and increase costs.

To assist and improve safety across warehouses and in busy environments Toyota Material Handling UK have a safety awareness system called SpotMe. In areas with poor visibility, SpotMe alerts truck operators and pedestrians of the potential danger of collisions, protecting the workers, the forklift and the goods.

Its infra-red (IR) direction sensitive sensors detect the movement or the presence of forklifts and pedestrians at the crossroads in due time. Whenever a crash danger is spotted, a SpotMe warning unit is activated, which helps the driver to avoid accidents.

Frank Hasleden, logistics solutions manager said: "SpotMe is a simple and safe way of alerting people across your material handling operation of general movement of people or trucks. An infra-red sensor picks up movement and a bright yellow LED light then alerts oncoming warehouse pedestrians and equipment operators. Managing warehouses in a safe manner improves productivity, so we are following our own key value, Kaizen, to continually improve warehouse safety for all our customers.

"The alternating flashing lights (LED) used by SpotMe are far more efficient in preventing accidents than flashing beacons or fixed warning lights. It improves driver behaviour and is simple to install yourself as the devices are fixed on the walls, with no set-up on fleet required.”