By Eric J. Conn and Nick W. Scala

Forklifts, or powered industrial trucks, continue to be one of the most essential and most heavily cited pieces of equipment within material handling, which makes today – National Forklift Safety Day – sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association, an opportune time to review some of the most common areas of OSHA enforcement for powered industrial trucks (“PIT”).

Recent data from OSHA indicates that in FY2019 there were over 2500 citations issued under §1910.178, which contains OSHA’s standard on PIT. This was the seventh most frequently cited standard by OSHA that year and according to OSHA, and specifically at the sub-sections of enforcement under §1910.178, the most commonly cited elements of the standard in FY2019 were:

• 178(l)(1)(i) – operator training: ensuring that operators are competent to safely operate a powered industrial truck as demonstrated by completion of training and evaluation;
• 178(l)(4)(iii) – refresher training and evaluation: evaluation of operator’s performance must be conducted at least once every three years;
• 178(l)(6) – certification of operator training and evaluation;
• 178(p)(1) – taking powered industrial trucks out of service when in need of repair, defective, or unsafe; and
• 178(l)(1)(ii) – operator training: ensuring completion of training prior to permitting employee to operate powered industrial truck.

It is imperative that employers utilizing PIT remain consistent when implementing training programs for material handling, and also know when to retrain. Not only must a recertification take place at least once every three years, as outlined in §1910.178(I)(4(iii), but refresher training must also be provided to operators if: Continue reading →