Discussion:
Forklift Inspections

What is the OSHA standard for (Length of Time) to keep the inspection records for daily inspections sheets? In case of an OSHA Audit, I believe its 1 year, but looking for clarifiaction, my home state is OKLAHOMA.

Thanks in advance
  • Posted 5 Apr 2012 01:34
  • Discussion started by dee_c
  • Oklahoma, United States
Showing items 16 - 23 of 23 results.
Jplayer, thanks for your responses, they were very helpful, and thanks to everyone that replied, I have been a forklift instructor for 8 years and I have never had this question come up and in our operating enviroment here I thought this is something that would eventually come up so I thought I would seek out the answer ahead of time. I just went through a OSHA audit and inspection and did not ask the inspector the question, but this was something that I wanted clarification on.
Thanks again. Dee C
  • Posted 10 Apr 2012 21:43
  • Reply by dee_c
  • Oklahoma, United States
dee
after all that stuff i posted in my previous post i never really did answer your question and i should apologise for that.

There is no "rule" written about how long to keep the "daily inspection" sheets. If it were my decision i'd keep them indefinatly, but thats just me. :o)
  • Posted 8 Apr 2012 00:44
  • Reply by Jplayer
  • North Carolina, United States
John Player Jr
_________________
LiftOne, LLC
Charlotte, NC
Email: jplayer@liftone.net
OSHA and common sense is a definite oxymoron. The failure to require documentation is not an oversight. It is a common practice in the majority of the OSHA standards

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), OSHA must request Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of the collection of any information required in any safety or health standard. Approval is only granted if it is specific and deemed to be necessary and relevant data.

The OSHA standard states: 1910.178(q)(7) - Industrial trucks shall be examined before being placed in service, and shall not be placed in service if the examination shows any condition adversely affecting the safety of the vehicle. Such examination shall be made at least daily. Where industrial trucks are used on a round-the-clock basis, they shall be examined after each shift. Defects when found shall be immediately reported and corrected.

The OSHA standard gives no specific information as to what the inspection consists of. Because the standard is vague, OMB cannot grant documentation approval.

OSHA can only enforce regulations as written and presented in the Final Rule of the rule-making process. Any changes (other than typographical errors) require a new rule-making process. This is a long, time consuming, and expensive process.

Employers do not need documentation for OSHA. They need documentation for potential lawsuits, especially third party wrongful death suits. The records that should be kept are those that document that a problem was found and the supporting documentation that shows that the problem was corrected.

A million copies of a daily inspection that are signed off by the operator but likely never really performed are meaningless.
  • Posted 7 Apr 2012 09:08
  • Modified 7 Apr 2012 15:17 by poster
  • Reply by joseph_h
  • Michigan, United States
even though its true, the OSHA documentation does not specifically say you have to keep the records you do on daily shift inspections, its only common sense that you would keep such records in the case of an incident that required OSHA to get involved.
I'm sure that was an oversight they made when implementing the rules for industrial truck daily shift inspections into thier documentation. EVERY lifttruck training class i've ever seen they tell you to inspect the truck before use and we routinely instruct the customers to do regular daily inspections (before each shift if they run multiple shifts). And in alot of cases provide them with an inspection sheet or an outline of one they can use.
We dont tell them to do this for nothing :o)

Think about it for a second, IF your company had an incident where injury was the case involving an industrial truck and OSHA was called to the scene for investigation... "one" of the many things they will do is ask for the maintenance and inspection records of the lift in question. Also for records of the operators training and work history at that company.

I'm sure there will be a revision in the future that will physically include those terms in the documentation. Theres always some schmuck lawyer somewhere that will find that loophole to help get some weasle out of trouble.... doh!
  • Posted 6 Apr 2012 21:02
  • Modified 6 Apr 2012 21:05 by poster
  • Reply by Jplayer
  • North Carolina, United States
John Player Jr
_________________
LiftOne, LLC
Charlotte, NC
Email: jplayer@liftone.net
it might be worth noting that while there is no OSHA requirement for keeping the record of the inspection, there is a requirement to do the inspection every shift, and you should expect to have to prove that the inspection is done, should/when OSHA decides to inspect the workplace safety.
  • Posted 6 Apr 2012 20:19
  • Reply by edward_t
  • South Carolina, United States
"it's not rocket surgery"
Cool, thanks Joseph. I had an idea this is how it works, but good advice to keep records just in case.
  • Posted 6 Apr 2012 07:20
  • Reply by TheBirdman
  • Oklahoma, United States
U.S. OSHA does not require written documentation for PIT daily inspection activity. A wise employer, however, will document such activity. Any record retention is at the discretion of the employer.

Google: OSHA Interpretation Powered Industrial Truck 02/07/2000

Google: OSHA Interpretation Powered Industrial Truck 07/28/2004

To obtain a complete list of OSHA PIT interpretations:
Google: OSHA Standard Interpretations 1910.178
  • Posted 5 Apr 2012 11:04
  • Modified 5 Apr 2012 11:10 by poster
  • Reply by joseph_h
  • Michigan, United States
Wow hey dee c I'm in OK as well! I will be interested in the replies as well. So far no one has asked me that yet but I do a fair amount of Operator Training so I am sure it will come up. If I had my rathers I would do nothing but training and let someone else peddle the forklifts----
  • Posted 5 Apr 2012 07:31
  • Reply by TheBirdman
  • Oklahoma, United States

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