One of SG World’s top selling Health & Safety solutions is the forklift truck inspection pad so we wanted to make sure our readers were aware of the Fork Lift Truck Association’s Safer Site Programme.
Launched at the National Fork Lift Safety Conference in 2014, the Safer Site Programme is the Association’s most ambitious safety initiative yet: an ongoing step-by-step safety scheme designed specifically for the fork lift truck industry.
The format of the Safer Site Programme is simple: every month on the FLTA website, the Association will publish a new step or module in the programme. Each of these monthly steps will include a list of "things to do", actions for participating companies to complete in order for them to move forward through the programme.
If this is the first time you’ve heard of the programme, don’t worry, fork lift truck companies are free to join at any time they wish and progress through the scheme at their own pace.
The latest modules available online are:
Step 1: Get Informed
Addressing the ownership of FLT safety, appointing the right champion and making a thorough and frank self-assessment of current practices to identify areas for improvement.
The FLT provides plenty of useful resources such as a Self Assessment Checklist and the Safety4MOST Guide - a “back-to-basics” style document encompassing the simplest and most basic safety precautions that should be taken by both management and operational teams.
Step 2: Form a Task Force
Getting the right team together to plan what you need to do, execute the plan and monitor the results.
Once all the stake owners are in place there are lots of suggestions as to how to strengthen FLT safety including adopting a more formal change process, considering a Supervisor’s Course and learning from other FLT user experiences.
Step 3 : Identify Training Issues
Understanding what the best practice is when it comes to FLT safety training.
The HSE publication L117 Rider-operated lift trucks: Operator training and safe use, is essential background reading and is available to download for free from the HSE website. Any training programme must involve operators, management and other employees.
The next module is Step 4: Identify Site Issues. In tandem with the programme the FLTA has launched a ‘Safety Selfie’ Competition inviting forklift truck users to show off their site’s best new safety feature by sending in a selfie.