OSHA Orders Forklift Training

Trucking companies will have to train drivers who occasionally use forklifts how to safely operate the equipment, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The training requirement will affect an estimated 1.5 million workers in a wide range of industries, including trucking.

Richard Sauger, the safety specialist at OSHA who led the development of the standard, said it applies to truckers who occasionally have to use forklifts to unload cargo. Incidents involving truck drivers and delivery people make up 6.7% of the yearly powered- truck injuries in the U.S., according to OSHA.

Mr. Sauger said the truck driver’s employer is responsible for ensuring proper training. “Where you have a driver of one employer unloading cargo on the premises of another business, it is still the truck driver’s boss who is responsible for his safety,” he said.

Employers are required to train all affected employees by Dec. 1, 1999. Employees hired after that date must complete the training program before being allowed to operate a forklift.

For 10 years, OSHA has been working to revise forklift training rules issued in 1971. The new standard, issued Dec.1, covers anyone who drives a powered industrial truck used to carry, push, pull, lift, stack or tier material. The machinery includes forklifts, pallet jacks and motorized hand trucks.

The standard requires that any employee operating a powered industrial truck receive “initial training” in how to operate it, including formal discussion and hands-on instruction. OSHA provides a list of 22 topics that must be included, if applicable. Once trained, employees must be certified by their employer as competent to operate a forklift, and that documentation must be retained for potential review by OSHA.

For the full story, see the Dec. 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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