Warning over mythical Forklift truck licenses

Workers' lives are being put at risk because many recruitment agencies rely upon a fictional fork lift truck licence to verify skills, a major industry body has warned.

The safety alert was issued by The Fork Lift Truck Association, which works to improve standards and safety on behalf of the UK's fork lift truck dealers and suppliers.
A random sample of job advertisements issued by agencies looking for fork lift truck operators found no less than 85% wrongly stipulated a fork lift truck licence or similar as a requirement despite there being no such document in the UK, and no central licensing authority.

Under current regulations, employers are required to issue written authorisation allowing trained staff to operate any fork lift truck; however, this is specific to that task, location and equipment and is not transferable to another company. This is no harmless myth, warns FLTA chief executive David Ellison.

“Because recent training certificates are mistaken for some kind of licence, many operators are given carte blanche to use fork lift trucks without the right training.

“The results of that can be disastrous; for them, and for colleagues. At least one employee is hospitalised every day by a fork lift truck in the UK alone two thirds of victims are pedestrians working nearby. Many of the injuries are permanent and, tragically, they're sometimes fatal.”

Free best practice Fact Sheets on fork lift operator selection and training, are available from the FLTA online at: www.forktruck. org.uk.