Here is a great guide on how to operate a forklift truck!
https://forkliftlicensehq.com/forklift-operation

yeah dan i agree, it amazes me what people try to pass off as legit training these days.
IMO the 'hands on' part of training should be a non-negotiable part of operator training so that the trainee can demonstrate that they can actually operate a lift. Just giving a seminar on how to drive one and handing out a certification card is just plain irresponsible.

Not from this city. Surprised they don't all get sued for their improper training.
Trained at a business yesterday and they told me thst their previous training included sit down counterbalance propane and whims all in 4 hours and they never went near the forklift.

That there is quality training for sure lol

Not from this city. Surprised the don't all get sued for their improper training.
Trained at a business yesterday and they told me that they were taught sit down counterbalance propane and whims all in 4 hours and they never went near the forklift.

That there is quality training

Here is a great guide on operating a forklift
https://forkliftlicensehq.com/forklift-operation

osha forklift safety training standards are here if anyone has any doubts as to what it entails

https ://safetyskills. com/osha-forklift-training-requirements

just remove the spaces out of the url i provided

theres no guessing, its not vague and its more than just an online training course.

There are a whole lot of people that drive a car that don't know how to properly & safely drive a car and they cause a lot of accidents & deaths. Most cars I know of all have front steering (some have all wheel steer) a forklift has rear steer big differnece and they don't carry and elevate a load that is about 1/2 of the gross vehicle weight or ae equipped w/ load handling attachments like carton clamps and paper roll clamps, etc. Go back to sleep - your thinking is dangerous.
Oh by the way, we (the US) took the lead out of paint in the 1970's and I'm certain othe countries did too - harmful to humans and babies.
Now you can really go back to sleep.

OMG, how can it be trained on line, in fact, it's easy, if you can drive a car, it's easy to drive a forklift

Thanks Raytech- you're very kind.

Very well said BBforks.....

""It's amazing the results attained when everyone is trained, cameras are installed and someone is let go because the company has a system in place that weeds out repeated safety violators. Everyone seems happier (believe it or not), more pride seems to be taken at their respective job""

That's bang on! Heck, you take a job as a writer the the President...wish I could express myself that well!
you know your $>it!

tj- I agee that management has to have personal responsibility in the training & safety of their emplyees- but I have seen over & over again that it's the emplyees- not management- that ruin the training & safety programs by doing shortcuts they know they shouldn't do.

I do know accidents happen, that sometimes good meaning actions go horribly wrong, but if you're trained on what not to do- then you shouldn't do it, period.

It's hard for me to feel bad for someone who is trying to beat the clock, hurrying up so they can take a break later & wind up hurting themselves ( or worse yet, someone else) because they were going to fast, were distracted & not paying attention, or just plain being stupid.

I have had customers who's management didn't value safety & training, and the moral of the employee pool showed the result of such thinking. When management doesn't care, no one does. It's amazing the results attained when everyone is trained, cameras are installed and someone is let go because the company has a system in place that weeds out repeated safety violators. Everyone seems happier (believe it or not), more pride seems to be taken at their respective job and, in the long run, repairs to the equipment actually are less because problems are caught & resolved much more quickly- mostly because no one wants to operate a lift that may be unsafe.

Laws, standards... even common sense does not matter. Too many times the motivation for change... motivation to even care, is born out of the reality that an accident creates for the worker who is injured, their family, the co-workers, the company, the management, and the monetary and legal liabilities all experienced. Why? This is not rocket science. We have all heard the saying; "too late to close the barn doors after the horses got out". The bigger the company, the more likely they have experienced the "horses getting out". That's why sometimes the larger companies have more aggressive training programs. I agree with what was said about personal responsibility. It is absolutely key to changing behavior. Until people involved in making decisions (management) about how much effort or money they put into their safety training starts to feel more personal responsibility for their co-workers... compromises in training will continue. And that is just sad.

Dang! A company gas card too! Worth as much as the Bimmer these days lol

That is so true bbforks! Camera`s are the best safety prevention of all! We had a guy last week claim the truck failed and caused him injury. Camera showed him falling asleep, slumping over then crashing into the racks.

And our company now has online training that we must take every year...we log in with a password and take the course, do the test. Takes some pressure off our trainer as he does all the big accounts
He does`nt drive a Beamer but does have company Venza with gas card!

No disrespect to either of you-I do understand the importance of what you do.

What I can tell you is that after 25 years of being self- employed- working for mostly small businesses is that safety is a concern, but the cheapest safety under the law is what matters most. All my customers at one time or another get on a safety kick, get involved with training, equipment, etc. In 99% of the cases, it doesn't last all that long. Safety involves time, energy & money. Small businesses don't have alot of that to go around (for whatever reason).

The larger businesses I service do get alot more concerned with safety. Usually I hear the phrase "We have to be careful because we have deep pockets". I have seen the most elaborate safety systems (IMHO) fail because someone was in a rush, the boss wasn't in or some other excuse. The operators who caused these systems to fail knew they were not following procedure, but in the end the outcome was the same- regardless of the reason.

To date- the most effective safety system I've seen is when cameras are installed. It's amazing how differently people act when they know they are being watched. I believe it's all about personal responsibility- which folks seem to find when they loose the ability to make up some story on how the manual shifted forklift left running in the parking lot jumped into gear on it's own, the forks raising to about 3'-again on it's own- & speared an employee which required a 911 emergency call- emergency surgery & a visit from OSHA.

The above situation did happen to a large- multi national company with a very sound safety system in place. I was called in as the forklift servicing vendor. The official report from the employee was that the forklift did these things all on it's own. The one thing he had forgotten was the parking lot survailance cameras. The look on his face was precious when he found out it was on film that he jumped off the forklift with it in gear & ran to his car. I'm sure he knew batter, but that didn't stop the poor decision that cost a fellow employee his spleen.

a small business with high turnover tells me that A) the company doesn't pay much B) The working conditions are rough C) The company is disorganized and has no leadership D) They don't care about their people, so therefore, there is high turnover. High turnover is for a reason but I can tell you this much, there is a Bimmer in the reserved parking space closest to the front door, and it ain't the forklift operator's car. And every Thursday, the Bimmer can be found at the golf course. There is some money, just not to be spent on employees' training. If I came across a small business that is hurting (really?), I would put an attractive package together to make it worth his while to keep whatever staff he has safe. I do this training stuff for the betterment of the operators in my region to ensure that everyone goes home safe at the end of everyday. Do I have to work harder than most? You better believe it! DO I work for less? That you better believe as well. You do this training as a commitment to peoples lives and safety, and obviously, to earn a living. But to host some cheesy training program online while the hosts are at the golf club or nudy bar partying it up while the subscibers' staff are dillydallying with these useless programs, online tests, and no practical testing, is definitely lacking, and if money is that tight, then why waste it on something that is useless?

Training can be done in many ways as long as it is documented and the trainer is qualified to train proper & safe operations of a lift truck. The trainer can be from outside the company or by an employee of the small business or medium or large or mega large. You don't turn over a set of keys to a16 year old and tell them go learn to drive. There are many sources that provides information, for example Clark with every new forklfit shipped from the factory has a very nice publication that defines what the Owner obligtions are under OSHA standards & other things liek waht is a stability tri angle, rear wheel steer (Clark promo stuff except on the outside covers. It is available for purchase at a nominal price. There are generic lift truck safety training programs available. I am selling a set of 3 Toyota training programs for pre SAS counter balance IC & electric, low lift walkies & narrow aisle reach / order selector version w/the this Clark user guide. Training can be as simple as sitting down with an employee going through (reading and answer questions) the most unread publication ever printed - the lift trucks operators manual, have a quiz verbal or written - document the test type and results, have them operate the lift w/supervision and instruction by a person of authority - document the results put it in the file and do a periodic review and document the review - (once/year). Just in case, the local OSHA inspector stop buy or a Phildelphia lawyer needs to get involved. No documentation or saying it cost too much may mean the small business no longer exists with documentation the battle is a little bit easier. How much or littel one does is a matter of the risk they business wishes to take.

Doesn't cost an arm & a leg to get what the OSHA reg says must be done but it is a commitment to employee safety as Nike says in their ads - "Just Do I". Oh by the way I don't like paying taxes either but I do to avoid the IRS hammer & keep my home.

IMHO- the OSHSA codes are written just the the tax codes, vague & open to interpretation- for a specific reason. Us, being the users of the codes, always seem to interpret them incorrectly when the sherriff comes to town. No matter what we do, there's always something we've missed, done wrong, etc. And of course, there's always a financial penalty for our ignorance.

As far as the specifics of training, if cheap, easy, quick programs are available in video then that's what employers will use. As I saw earlier in this thread, the only way to get rid of them is make them not a legal option, but this would kill small business. Sorry John & dan, but small businesses with high turnover rates couldn't afford to have you out constantly training new hires on how to safely unload & stack cases of beer.

Now I have to go drink (oh I'm sorry, I mean enviromentally dispose of) some spilt liquid refreshment.

dan m,
Let me clarify the meaning of what I stated when an operator moves to another company they do not have to go thru a full training course starting with the ABCs of lift truck safety. But it is up to the employer to do some training to qualify the operator to be competent in their operations. For example, an operator was qualifed to work in a "standard" storage rack warehousing operation with 12' aisle at company A (after receiving training from Dan M so he can make his payments on his nuevo Lambo and buy some polish or wax and take a trip South of the border) but the operator moves to company B that has drive through racking. The operator does need to be trained on the unique procedures to operate the lift in the drive through and a review of companies B own and maybe unique safety procedures. The employer, generally the operator's immediate supervisor, can do this without incurring any additional expenses and should document this training in the the operators personnnel file. This give Dan M some down time so Dan M can wax his Lambo before the wax dries too hard.
PS: It looks like from down here your a pretty good word merchant too! Maybe the FAC staff can give us an award for the longest posts, what say you? (LOL). Take Care.

That was one long post put forth by MrJohn. The wax on my Lambo started to dry hard before I could buff it out.

Although a refresher course when changing facilities is required, ya think any company is going to shell out money to have experienced operators specifically trained for their property? You gotta be kidding! If that was the case, I'd have my Lambo professionally waxed.

The issue we are dealing with here is the fact that companies are responsible for the health and safety of their employees, including lift truck operators.

Generally, but not always the case, if lift truck operator safety training was not the law, I'd be waxing other people s' Lambos for a living. Companies have to train their staff and the cheapest way out is the route many take, unfotunately. They believe they have done their diligence, and hide behind whatever Record of Training they received, or paid for. Looky here Mr labour officer, we had our staff trained (by an HP Pavillion Model 7583). We followed the law.

The only way to get companies or individuals off the online training programs us to outlaw them, just like they do with drugs. The hosts of these online training programs give a **** (sorry) about peoples health and safety just like drug traffickers and drug dealers give a **** about your kids health and safety. They have a gazillion departments with a gazillion officers attempting to stop the flow of drugs into our countries. The only difference between drugs and lift truck training is that their is good money to be made in drugs. A very large hardware/carpet/tile/plumbing/appliances/garden center ORANGE depot across North America uses computers to train their staff. WHO IS going to tell them otherwise? I tried but they don't listen. They just keep taking my money. I am waiting for the new version of that HP computer that will paint my house and do plumbing repairs.

Anyhow, the wax on my Maybach is hardening and I have talked long enough, so I will sit on the sidelines for now. There is no room for my propane cylinder and pylons in the Lambo