Congratulations to the members of the B56 Standards Committees at ITSDF (Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation). Since taking this over from the former secretariat, ANSI/ASME, they have made available for FREE the entire series of the B56 Standards. To hear that they have distributed over 10, 000 copies over the internet is a significant contribution to our field. To my knowledge, NONE of the other consensus standards are free for the download and can be a hefty expense to people needing the information.

The ITSDF B56 Standards are consensus standards that, in the USA, have been incorporated in the US government's rules on powered industrial trucks (29 CFR 1910.178 and others). This means that the ITSDF members are doing important work that affects everyone who is building, distributing, repairing, regulating, managing or training operators of forklifts and other types of powered industrial trucks. That the people at ITSDF are making the standards visable and available to ALL interested is one of the best example of democracy in action that exists, anywhere.. At most this is a valued service to anyone on planet earth who is interested in being fully informed in regard to some of the best and brightest thinking around industrial trucks.

I encourage anyone interested in our field to surf the internet for the Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation (ITSDF), download any of the standards, and post a message with your own thinking on this.

Best Wishes,

Joe Monaco
Monaco Group, Inc.
Project Managers for
National Lift Truck Operator Registry (LIFTOR)