Emma Radebaugh
If you have employees who use forklifts, you know that training is key. Without proper training, at best, you’ll have an employee who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and at worst, an accident could occur. So what should you do when looking for essential forklift training tips for your team? Read on to find them below.
Education Is Key
You need to take time in your training to teach your employees about what can occur if they don’t pay attention to your training plan. The truth is that forklift safety tips are necessary for your employees. Be sure to stress that their lives depend on it because they do. If you want, you can tell them stories about what you’ve seen in the past to encourage them to be more attentive. Better to “scare” them now than watch them become injured later because of a lack of safety training.
Teach Them To Perform Inspections
Teach your employees to inspect their forklifts before using them. Luckily for you, OSHA has forklift inspection requirements that they can use to guide them. Teach them never to be so eager to get started that they forget to ensure everything is safe.
Make them check the steering so that they don’t crash into anything. Check the finger guards so that their fingers don’t get caught, and ensure the brakes work properly so that they don’t accidentally run into something—or someone. This is one of our most important tips for forklift training.
Perform Maintenance
OSHA regulations require you to maintain your forklift regularly. You should perform cursory maintenance before and after every use. You can implement this through your forklift inspection checklist. Check the forklift tire pressure, and check for leaky hoses since they can become worse over time. You should also maintain your forklift forks since they carry many heavy and delicate loads throughout the shift.
If you follow these steps, you’ll be well on your way to having a safe and efficient workplace with informed employees that understand how to use a forklift.
