Is there a killer in your warehouse?

Rarely a week goes by without news of an HSE prosecution.  Most recently, we heard how two contractors suffered serious injuries after they fell from an unsecured cage balanced on the forks of a fork lift truck. 

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 a 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. 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 (22nd to 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 profound cultural change? 

Delegates will be provided with five real-world examples by companies that have done just this. 

Among the speakers will be Babcock Marine who worked with a range of stakeholders, including the HSE, Ministry of Defence and the unions to establish 21 standards that were developed and agreed by the drivers themselves. 

We’ll also hear from GKN who will tell how, following an investigation into a fork lift truck related fatality at one of its US plants, the company’s thinkSAFE! global safety system allowed them to share the lessons to be learned among its 50,000 employees around the globe. 

Tyre company Interfit UK will focus on safety issues surrounding fork lift tyres, while Mentor PRM will look at the challenges facing managers and provide five practical ways to reduce the likelihood of an accident at your site. 

Briggs Equipment will speak to delegates about how they’ve positively reframed hazard reporting with a ‘Safety Gain’ programme which highlights any noticed opportunity for making safety improvements. 

Throughout the programme, the 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 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 and 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, a 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.

The Conference is open to all, though discounted entry is available to members of the Fork Lift Truck Association and its Safe User Group. To find out more, or to register for updates, go to fork-truck.org.uk, call 01635 277577 or email [email protected].