Could you still pass your driving test today? Over time, complacency and bad habits dangerously dull our risk awareness. In materials handling, this can spell disaster. 

Annually, forklift accidents in the UK cause around 1,300 serious injuries, impacting 25 people every week with potentially life-altering consequences. The stakes are simply too high to ignore.

So how do we ensure that safe practice is followed every day?

Managers: the frontline of safety

Managers should play a critical role in materials handling operations and their proactive stance is essential for minimising incidents and fostering a culture where safety is paramount. But how can they truly safeguard their teams and businesses?

When it comes to maintaining standards, while operator training is a compliance requirement for all UK businesses using MHE, this typically occurs every three to five years, allowing unsafe practices to develop in the interim. 

Managers must ensure standards are upheld consistently, staying vigilant to the risks, employing continuous monitoring and leveraging innovations like truck telematics and CCTV analysis to enforce safety practices every day.

Equip managers with essential skills

To maintain high safety standards, managers must identify risks in real time, taking immediate action before problems escalate. Success hinges on understanding, quite simply, what’s safe and what’s not.

Those overseeing MHE activity don’t need to be certified forklift operators themselves, but they must be able to spot unsafe habits before accidents happen. 

Providing managers with the skills and knowledge to uphold safety is crucial, so empowering them via specialist training programmes is essential to equip them to identify and reduce risk.

The business benefits of taking action

1. Building a safety culture: by ensuring that safety is ingrained in daily activities, trained managers set and enforce vital standards, protecting teams and operations.

2. Protecting productivity and profitability: by addressing bad practices early, managers prevent accidents, costly damage, disruptions and delays. This proactive approach safeguards both the workforce and the bottom line.

3. Ensuring legal compliance: skilled managers help businesses meet legal standards, like the UK’s Approved Code of Practice for Rider-Operated Lift Trucks (L117), which requires that, ”supervisors have enough training and knowledge to recognise safe and unsafe practices”. 

Not only do compliant operations keep you on the right side of the law, they also help to protect your company’s reputation.

In summary, the role of managers in upholding MHE safety is critical. A proactive approach can drive significant improvements in safety culture and operational efficiency, but it requires managers to be able to recognise the everyday risks.

Relevant training for your supervisory staff is a direct investment in safety, compliance, and efficiency. By providing them with the necessary knowledge and skills, you will help your managers to address issues and understand the severe consequences of unsafe practices. Empower them to take decisive action, and they can help you protect your people, your business, and its future.

Act now—don't wait for a costly accident to happen.