I am pretty sure that, because service technician's services are sold to customer's as "experts", we are legally expected to be -experts-. but as an expert we are also expected to know just exactly where our expertise ends, and be willing to acknowledge just exactly where that end is.
that said, swoop, I _know_ that you receive safety education as part and parcel of the factory service training we all receive, we just don't even think about it any more. it usually happens in the 1st few minutes of the class, right after they make sure you know where the bathrooms are, when break time is, and right after they tell you what they are going to tell you. you just consider it as background for what the class is about. when you took your LPG fuels system class, they talked about the properties of LPG fuel, and included safety around LPG fuel as part of that discussion.
As far as the regulations about forklift service personal operating powered industrial trucks in multiple locations, [OSHA {29CFR1910.178} specifies training to be 'site specific'] this is an area most dealerships expect to be covered by the service and or sales department having done a site assessment/inventory as part of the "due diligence" in getting to know a new customer and what they have, along with the service tech having a pretty good knowledge about when and where injuries happen, and what is "energy" (that must be 'locked out' before work goes on).
Forklift repair still is one heck of a dangerous and injury filled job, and takes full time 'situational awareness' [knowing what is going on around you all the time] in order to be able to say; 'everyone goes home safe today' which I would wish we could say every day.

well this is a very volatile subject now isn't it...
and while running the risk of going way off topic i will say this...

Being a dealer lift truck technician myself, we are viewed upon by the customer as being "experts" because we are factory trained and by all rights we should be "experts" on the brands we sell. We are expected to know everything there is to know about the machines we work on. Are we trained in lift truck safety? Well that is a different aspect of lift truck training that is not specifically covered in the training classes we take, what we deal with in those classes deal specifically with the lift truck operations , mechanical and electrical, the physical aspects of how the truck runs and are trained on how to troubleshoot and repair only.

Now as far as safety training we do touch base on the fact that certain components on the lift truck are required by OSHA and the other organizations to be functional "if they are installed by the factory and are on the truck" and are deemed a "safety component" but in most of the training classes i've been in this is only brought up if someone questions it. And in many classes these days that does get brought up during the training, not by the trainer but by the technicians.

If we have any "safety training" done it is generally separate from the machine training in the classes, it is done by the company we work for and is not a factory represented training course. The operator training cards we get are generated by the company and are a 'inhouse' generated card that certifies we have been trained on forklift operator safety for specific models of forklifts and is dated and should be renewed according to the company policies on this program.

Every dealer probably handles this in their own way so there is no specific precedence on how, when, where it is done.

Frankly..... being a "dealer" forklift technician, i never could understand the relevance for us having to have these "separate" certifications outside of the classroom training. The classroom training should cover this and automatically render the technician as a "certified lift truck operator" because we have to know the truck inside and out and "know how" to drive it safely. So certification cards should be given at the end of the classroom training imo ;o)

Got to disagree really every time i service a truck i inspect it and put it back in service for a customer having filled out the service sheet stating that it is either safe to use or needs repair. Every time i carry out a loler I am certifying the lift for the next 12 (or 6 months for a man up machine)

I have always been advised that we are forklift truck experts and not safety. There is no doubt that we can and do tell a customer that that his forklift truck is unsafe to continue to use. It is quite another thing to advise them that you have checked everything and it is fully safe. That would be setting yourself up to fail-and worse.

What is an "accredited Forklift training company"?
In other words, who provided that "accredited" for them?
anyone can _claim_ to "follows OSHA, ANSI and ASME standards", but I am pretty sure I would expect them to not only follow, but train "_completely, and fully_" to the particular standards.
Someone should let you know, as a forklift trainer-[and legally a 'forklift expert'], we don't follow ASME standards standards as much any more, the current standards body that has taken over responsibility for powered industrial trucks made in the USA, is now [for some 7 years, in 2014] the Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation, and their website is itsdf dot org (and I am pretty sure neither ITSDF nor OSHA nor ASME nor ANSI -never- -ever- provide any sort of "accreditation").
I would certainly expect to be alerted by/to claims that can not be substantiated, such as "accreditation" where no actual accreditation body exists.
Jerri c, please educate me/us about this "accreditation".
Thanx

The problem with pointing the finger at the trainer is that the employer may not have used an accredited Forklift training company, like Total Equipment Training (TET). Not only does TET have corporate training for Forklift operators, but they also now have an online training program that follows OSHA, ANSI and ASME standards, that you can find on the web. Did this other "training company" do the same?

i think one big difference will happen when the lawsuits start, and that will be how well this advertiser stands behind their training in court. I know the manufacturers have vetted their training and are willing to stand behind their products in court, which is where the claims of adequacy in training are likely to get heard by a jury who many not even know what a forklift does the day before they are picked to decide if the training was good enough, [that it should have prevented the action where someone got injured or killed]?
How well will this product protect the trainer from claims of negligence in their training? how deep are the pockets, and how much are we/they counting on not being 'the deepest pockets'.

this may work well for independent tech's or companies needing cert's but most dealers provide their own version of this through their manufacturers to their tech's and their customers.

good luck though ;o)