Hi all.
1. Your country name AUSTRALIA
2. Does your country have laws and regulations regarding safe lift truck operation? Yes
3. What is the name/number of the law or reg? AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS, ISO STANDARDS, STATE WORK SAFETY REQUIREMENTS
4. Does your country mandate the use of a seat belt for lift truck operators? Yes IF SEATBELT IS FITTED. ADDITIONALLY VICTORIAN WORK SAFETY ORGANISATION IS FORCING RETROFITTING OF SEAT BELTS
5. Does your country require licensing of LT operators. (e.g. You go to a gov't office to obtain it.) Yes IF POWERED. STATE GOVERNMENT ADMINISTERED BUT TESTING PRIVATE
6. IF NO for number 5. Does your country require training and qualification of lift truck operators? Yes or No
7. Is recertification required at some frequency? NOT MANDATORY BUT SAFETY AWARE COMPANIES ASSIST ON REFRESHER TRAINING - SOME ON AN ANNUAL BASIS
8. Does your country require testing for LT operators?
a. Medical testing (fit for duty) No
b. Drug/alcohol testing NO - SOME COMPANIES/ SITES INSIST ON SUCH TESTING ON A RANDOM BASIS FOR ALL WORKERS

Cannot leave it there without making the following comments though:

In spite of licencing with basic requirements including checking the load and checking the load plate before lifting the load, in refresher training hardly any operators can tell us the rating of their forklift OR the maximum load they lift. In addition most intermediate / in process goods have no weight information on them so operator has no idea. Very few understand rated distance is both a horizontal and vertical distance. As a result in most sites I inspect forklift trucks are being overloaded

In spite of mandatory seat belt laws, very few sites achieve 100% compliance with many having very low compliance. Sites with 100% compliance tend to have an expectation that everyone on site from CEO down stops and forklift driver who is not wearing a seatbelt and instructs them to put it on, AND that they report the incident, AND multiple transgressions will lead to employment being terminated.

In regard to Toyotas fitted with SAS (and not TOYOTA three wheel counterbalance forklifts) I also comment. The SAS system is good but cannot eliminate fatalities.

I investigate fatalities with forklifts for our work safety organisation. The SAS system would not have prevented a collision then rollover (mast blind spot on a modern open mast resulted in forklift colliding with narrow building column while negotoating a wide curve); it would most likely not have prevented a rollover caused by a heavy swinging load; may have prevented a rollover of a forklift where the operator did a sharp turn with a lifting clamp at height; would not have prevented a worker being run over once again due to the mast blind spot; would not have prevented a collision with a pedestrian and his death while carrying pallets 2 high forwards into a pantech trailer; would not have prevented an eight tonne load tipping of forklift tynes and killing a worker; and would not have prevented a walkie forklift falling of a truck tail gate and killing the operator.

So it would be unrealistic to expect SAS to eliminate all rollover and tipover fatalities.