Site and equipment training must be specific

Rob Vetter -
Safety First
- 17 Aug 2006 ( #273 )
1 min read
Rob Vetter is technical director and managing partner with the Ives Training Group, in Blaine, WA, USA, a leader in North American mobile equipment training systems since 1981.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) includes forklift and workplace-related topics in its forklift operator training standard, which means only one thing, it must be done.
The requirement in the standard for "...evaluation of the operator's performance in the workplace..." makes it clear that general training and/or off-site evaluation is not good enough and rightly so.

In reality, many employers are completely absorbed in the day to day of their core business, unaware of the requirements, much less compliant with them. That leaves the door open for unscrupulous training providers to swoop in and take money in exchange for training that does not meet the minimum standard.

Forklift operator training that does not address specific hazards in the operator's working environment is not acceptable. Training delivered on any equipment other than that which the operator is assigned to use is not acceptable. Any performance evaluation performed outside the operator's workplace is not acceptable. Those kinds of operator training are non-compliant and therefore unacceptable.

If your operators are being trained and evaluated while moving empty pallets around a parking lot on a sit-down counterbalanced rider and their actual job involves using an electric powered stand-up to move furniture around a warehouse, something is wrong.

OSHA stipulates site and equipment specifics within the criteria of its forklift operator training standard and that is exactly what is expected. Is that what you are doing?
Also Read:
FLTA: Chest-height crush fatalities can be avoided
1 minute read
FLTA: Chest-height crush fatalities can be avoided Safety First - 24 Aug 2006 (#274) Two fatal UK forklift incidents have prompted the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) to urge employers to regularly monitor forklift operators.
“You can’t win unless you’ve been nominated”
1 minute read
“You can’t win unless you’ve been nominated” Safety First - 27 Jul 2006 (#270) The UK Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) has opened nominations for its 2007 awards for excellence, popularly known as the Archies.
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This week Forkliftaction News is celebrating its 25th anniversary! A wonderful achievement given we launched at a time when just 6% of the world’s population were internet users, according to Internet World Stats . Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing stories about our history and rolling out more celebrations, so keep an eye out... Continue reading

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Inside The News
This week Forkliftaction News is celebrating its 25th anniversary! A wonderful achievement given we launched at a time when just 6% of the world’s population were internet users, according to Internet World Stats . Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing stories about our history and rolling out more celebrations, so keep an eye out... Continue reading

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