Al S You are right! Australia has no clear defined model to follow & it appears to be the same over there
The industry is sitting on the fence or a dollar each way bet on the subject.
This clearly is not good enough because the owners & users world wide need a clear direction or path to go down.
An operator can be easily confused as to what the rules are where & when.
To use a simile can you imagine what would happen if there were no road rules or traffic lights or the rules were to be diffrent in each locality on our roads - multiplicities of death & injuries on a grand scale.
A study should be undertaken to evaluate each case by the manufacturers & users and should include Safety Professionals but only the professionals with intimate knowlege on the use of forklifts.
Curently safety is being compramised by production schedules & profit margins.
I for one am prepared o call a spade a spade and suggest that an international forum be convened to thrash out the correct model or criteria to be considerd when an organisation or government is adopting their safety policies.
We as industry professionals have the obligation or duty of care to give clear as possible information to all empoyers & legislators.
We can not, must not sit on the fence and have a dollar each way nor can we continue to bury our heads in the sand.