Even top forklift operators struggle with pre-use inspections

The findings formed part of a presentation by Gavin Hutchinson, auditor and examiner for the RTITB at The Health & Safety Event, which recently took place at the NEC in Birmingham.

Gavin spoke at the Safer Logistics Seminar Theatre and outlined how RTITB delves into pre-use inspections as part of its written examination for entrants to the Forklift Operator of the Year competition.

The competition tends to attract the very best forklift operators in the industry. However, many of the entrants appeared not to understand best practice.

Gavin said 22% of entrants did not know how to check forks correctly. The Health & Safety Executive says that 8% of the incidents they investigate involve fork defects.

Further, 48% of entrants did not know how to check the mast correctly, 65% did not know how to check driving and braking correctly, and 23% failed to identify the correct way to check lift chains, with 25% unclear on how to correctly check hydraulics.