Act First Safety, an occupational health and safety training provider, has come up with a free guide to help employers meet required re-evaluation intervals for forklift operators.

"This guide meets the standards set out for the Canadian marketplace," says Lauren McFarlane, president of Toronto-based Act First Safety. "It is eight pages and is available in PDF format".

Entitled "Performing Lift Truck Practical Skills Evaluations", the guide provides an overview of training requirements in the Canadian Standards Association B335-04 safety standard for lift trucks. As released in 2004, the standard requires a three-year theoretical and practical evaluation with an 18-month-interval practical evaluation. The previous standard called for a two-year theoretical and practical evaluation.

Between 2003 and 2007, Ontario incidents involving forklifts, reach trucks and tow motors resulted in 13 worker deaths according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, 793 reported accidents per year according to the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Council and an average of 67 days of lost-time claims according to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

McFarlane founded Act First Safety in 2003 following three years with a leading lift truck training company. The firm is the exclusive independent facilitator in Canada for the workplace violence prevention training program of the Crisis Prevention Institute Inc of Brookfield, Wisconsin.

The guide is available via this email address or by calling 1-416-283-7233.