Is there a killer in your warehouse?

If you work in materials handling, chances are you’ve either read about someone who has been injured by a fork lift truck, or worse – you know someone who has.

 

As you set off for work each day, you would understandably expect to finish your workday in your home or maybe the pub… not in hospital. 

 

But for more than 800 workers each year, accidents involving fork lift trucks result in serious injuries. The very nature and size of fork lift trucks means that many of these injuries are life-changing.  And not just for the victim. Workplace accidents affect the lives of families, friends, communities and co-workers… forever. 

 

Fork lift trucks account for more than a quarter of all workplace transport accidents – making them by far the most dangerous vehicle to anyone working on or (especially) near them. 

 

We must address this situation more determinedly than ever and this year’s Fork Truck Safety Conference (24th September) – the focal point of Safety Week (22- 28th September) – provides an opportunity to do just that.

 

In recent months, we have worked closely with representatives from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Safety Conference sponsor Briggs Equipment, and other leading bodies and materials handling experts to identify the biggest challenges facing employers and managers, as well as the operators and the ‘frontline’ staff who work alongside them.

 

Through these discussions, it quickly became clear that while it’s tempting to think of a lift truck as the ‘killer in your warehouse’, a workplace culture which permits bad practice to go unchallenged is every bit as dangerous. 

 

The aim of this year’s Safety Conference – and our annual Safety Week campaign – is to provide companies of every size with a simple framework that allows everyone on site to participate in improving fork lift truck safety in a positive, blame-free environment. 

What better way to achieve this than to call upon companies who have already analysed the problems and developed the strategies and mechanisms to deliver cultural change? 

 

At this year’s Safety Conference, delegates will be provided with real-world examples of companies that have done just this. (See boxed item.)

 

Throughout this packed programme, our emphasis will be on giving managers and supervisors practical and proven guidance and tips that works in a wide-range of industries – including some ‘quick wins’ to help you drive new safety initiatives. 

 

Surrounding the conference – and continuing long beyond it – Safety Week will shine a spotlight on the issue of fork lift safety. As ever, it will provide interesting, relevant and interactive resources to reach the widest audience – engaging them to find the real killer in their warehouse. 

 

Among the materials being developed this year – in association with Mentor, the UK’s foremost provider of operator training to the materials handling industry – will be a series of hazard perception tests designed to encourage anyone involved with fork trucks, including pedestrians, to test their knowledge… and discover ways to improve it to enhance everyone’s safety.

 

The Conference is open to all. Find out more at: fork-truck.org.uk