Will YOUR Forklift Certification Stand-Up to Scrutiny? Are You Sure?
In the USA, OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) requires you to certify (document) that you have performed the forklift operator training and evaluation at 29 CFR 1910.178 (l), et. al. Aside from OSHA though, there are clear benefits when employers document all of their operator training and evaluation activity. Do it right, and you will not only be able to successfully stand-up to scrutiny when faced with an OSHA citation, but also if sued for wrongful death or personal injury. But, let's face it, except for high-risk forklift environments. these are possible risks to most employers. Do the documentation correctly and, in the event of serious injury, fatality, or OSHA general inspection, it does much to eliminate that uncertainty. Is there a bonus somewhere? Count on it! Your business can benefit with customized operating standards, On-Job-Training (OJT), effective supervision, and operators trained to perform their jobs both safe AND fast.
When stored in an electronic format, forklift-related records can be easily accessed on demand, not only satisfying government regulators, but for standardizing business processes, facilitating continuous improvement, improving operator job competence (safety AND speed), defending OSHA citations, and for successfully defending tort actions in court because you have a ready-made affirmative defense (providing evidence that you acted properly when faced by claims to the contrary).
Some say documentation is a worthless activity in that - regardless of program quality (where operators actually learn safe on-job behavior) it is ONLY paperwork (or e-files) OSHA requires. You may never be inspected or cited by OSHA. You can "risk-manage" the matter, and if you are cited by OSHA, the fine will be a maximum of $7000 for a first-time offending employer. It could be less. You can argue the matter all you want. So, why consider actually providing electronic powered industrial truck operator certification records? There are two reasons:
- Practical, standardized, and economical for your business, and
- Reduced uncertainty of regulatory disruption (inspections, fines, litigation expense, etc.)
Practical, standardized, and economical for your business. If you own or manage a business requiring forklifts, AGV's, or other powered industrial trucks to be operated or avoided by pedestrians, it is a practical matter to document related employee training and the evaluation. By documenting the training and evaluation in sufficient job-detail, you have a "standard" that can now be used for each future training and evaluation of employees. No need to "re-invent the wheel". If documented in an electronic editor, the training and evaluation documents can be re-designed to track with future changes in equipment, on-job tasks, or its environment. It also makes it possible to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the training and evaluation. This would NOT be possible without an already existing set of documents, easily edited and printed-out. Just retrieve them from your hard drive.
Performance improvement can be had, as trainers learn to integrate scientific research, or direct observation conclusions into the standards they use to train and evaluate operators. Using scientific research data to inform both training and evaluation is NOT a new practice. It has been around for many decades and is responsible for human performance improvement in many fields. It could be used in forklift environments, too. Yet, only a few warehouse and DC locations, and fewer "other businesses" integrate much science into operator training and evaluation. So, there is no built-in continuous improvement. Most simply rely on OSHA training standards. As valuable and helpful as OSHA's latest "powered industrial truck operator training" rule (29 CFR 1910.178 (l) its intended achievement was to eliminate 11 of the 100 annual fatalities related to powered industrial trucks.
This estimate was a flexible one as OSHA later said it had a 25% reduction method it was using to make yet another estimate. Various other estimates have been mentioned in industry literature since 1996.
If you use the original estimate, it begs an important question about what to do if you are an operator trainer or supervisor:
"If I could identify them, what do I tell the other 89 people about their certain death by forklift before year's end?"
It is a sobering question that most serious professionals in our industry cannot answer. Lack of effective answers has to do with policy, politics, possible litigation, and various missions. Of course, no one can identify in advance the people who will become fatalities. So, it has been the LIFTOR mission for nearly three decades to investigate and provide useful answers to everyone concerned; especially those who would otherwise suffer -the operators and pedestrians.
LIFTOR Licensed Industrial Sites have been answering that question successfully since 1985. No matter what estimates evolve, having a good answer to the question is key to practical, standardized, and economical action for your business. It starts with data about your operators that you might already have. Keeping good training and evaluation activity records and having immediate access to them can serve you well. If you go about documenting training and evaluation in an orderly way, using simple data-based methods anyone can learn, performance of forklift operations will immediately start improving.
Reduced uncertainty of regulatory disruption (inspections, fines, litigation expense, etc.) In the USA, the regulators from OSHA and others can seriously disrupt your business with a general inspection, or one for a fatality or serious injury. Having readily available documentation on employee training and evaluation can serve to relieve you of the uncertainty when someone calls your office and says, " An OSHA compliance officer is here for an inspection."
See one example at: http://www.oshrc.gov/decisions/html_2012/10-2646.htm.
A highway construction worker was killed on the job when backed over by a truck. OSHA cited the employer on three violations of specific OSHA standards. On appeal, the citations were vacated (removed) ONLY because the employer had an affirmative defense claiming "unavoidable employee misconduct." The fact that the employer could show training documentation, with sufficient details to demonstrate compliance, they successfully "beat" all three charges, including the fines.
So, from a compliance vantage point, OSHA demands that you keep certain records, certifying that you conducted powered industrial truck operator training and evaluation. Many employers do not. OSHA recently cited some 900 companies in the USA for not performing powered industrial truck operator training. They simply had no certification (documentation) to show they were in compliance.
Had they kept records of their powered industrial truck training and evaluation, those 900 companies would not have had to suffer the fall-out. They did not have it. OSHA cited them. It's that simple.
After nearly two decades, LIFTOR.com is opening its resources beyond its private client base. We are now seeking beta testers from a mix of different industries to help us develop an electronic OSHA Certification System. When fully developed, this service will automatically send an email alert before operator certification has expired. Fully editable, It will print training and evaluation records at your desktop. We are looking for other suggestions from the field. Beta testers get complete access to LIFTOR.com almost FREE as members.
If you actively supervise, or train & evaluate forklift (powered industrial truck) operators, and would like to participate as an adviser in this initiative, please email [email protected]. In the email, state some particulars about your situation. Please help us help you.
Gotta go...
Joe Monaco