Forklift safety: practical rules, and where cameras help

In the US, OSHA's standard for forklifts, which it calls powered industrial trucks, is 29 CFR 1910.178. In the UK, HSE calls forklifts lift trucks. Its main document is the approved code of practice L117, Rider-operated lift trucks: operator training and safe use.

This guide quotes both because they agree on the basics. If your site is somewhere else, your own safety regulator sets the rules, and the practical steps below still apply.

Start with who is driving and what condition the truck is in. HSE says accidents involving lift trucks are often due to poor supervision and a lack of training, and that on average lift trucks are involved in about a quarter of all workplace transport accidents.

OSHA and HSE both expect trained operators, and OSHA also sets out daily truck checks.

• Training: OSHA says each operator must be competent, shown by completing the training and evaluation in 1910.178(l). HSE says operators must be trained before they use a lift truck, even if they use one only now and then.
• Re-assessment: OSHA says an evaluation of each operator's performance must be done at least once every three years. HSE says even trained and experienced operators need to be re-assessed from time to time.
• Daily check: OSHA says a truck must be examined before it is placed in service, at least daily, and not used if the examination shows a condition that affects safety.
• Out of service: OSHA says a truck that is in need of repair, defective or unsafe must be taken out of service until it is restored to a safe condition.
• No passengers: OSHA says unauthorised people must not ride on powered industrial trucks.
• Restraints: HSE says that since 2002 counterbalanced, rough-terrain and side-loading trucks must be fitted with an operator restraining system, for example a seat belt.

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Training helps, but the strongest protection is layout. HSE says the most effective way to protect pedestrians is to separate pedestrian and vehicle activity by making routes entirely separate. Where that is not possible, it says to provide crossing points where the routes cross.

These are the practical measures that follow.

• Mark the routes. HSE lists protective barriers, clear markings that set vehicle and pedestrian routes apart, and raised kerbs as effective ways to keep vehicles away from pedestrian areas. OSHA says permanent aisles and passageways must be free from obstructions and appropriately marked.
• Give people a safe crossing. Put crossing points where people actually need to cross, and make them obvious to the driver as well as the walker.
• Reduce reversing. HSE says that as far as possible vehicles should not have to reverse, and that one-way systems are an effective way of dealing with the risk of reversing accidents.
• Yield to people. OSHA's forklift guidance says operators should yield the right of way to pedestrians, and reminds people that lift trucks cannot stop suddenly.
• Keep walkways clear. Stock stored in a walkway pushes people into the truck route.

A forklift driver cannot see everything, especially with a load in front. The risk is highest where a truck meets people at a corner, a doorway or a cross aisle. OSHA's standard says the driver must slow down and sound the horn at cross aisles and other places where vision is obstructed. HSE says forward visibility needs to be good enough for drivers to see and avoid hazards.

• Slow down, stop and sound the horn at intersections, corners and anywhere vision is blocked. This is OSHA's guidance.
• Fit convex mirrors at blind aisle intersections. OSHA lists this as a way to remove blind spots.
• Use a spotter where a blind spot cannot be removed. OSHA lists this as well.
• Look in the direction of travel. OSHA says operators should always do this.
• Look at your own layout. Walk the truck routes and stand where the driver sits. Wherever you cannot see a person, the driver cannot either.

The dock is where forklifts, trailers and people all meet at once. OSHA's warehousing guidance says to keep a safe distance from dock edges and never back a forklift to the dock's edge. It also says to use measures such as wheel chocks or sand shoes so the vehicle the dockboard sits on cannot move while people are on the dockboard.

A near miss is an event that did not hurt anyone but could have: a truck and a person close enough that someone had to jump or stop. HSE says a pattern of near misses provides an early warning that something needs attention, and that near misses should not be ignored or treated lightly, because they show how well you are managing health and safety.

Near-miss reporting only works if people use it. OSHA's guidance on safety and health programmes sets out what makes it work, and the last step is acting on what comes in.

• Make reporting easy, with a process for workers to report close calls, near misses and hazards, and respond to reports promptly.
• Offer an anonymous option, to reduce fear of reprisal.
• Say clearly that the information is used only to improve safety and that nobody will be punished for reporting.
• Tell people what was done. OSHA says to report back to workers routinely and frequently about action taken.
• Look for patterns by place, shift and type of truck. A corner that keeps appearing needs a mirror, a marking or a different layout.

Cameras are one layer, and it is worth being clear about what they do. A camera does not stop a truck. Mirrors, horns, speed rules, markings and trained drivers do that. What cameras add is a record and a view of how trucks and people really move on your floor.

Be open with your staff about where cameras are and why, because rules on filming workers differ by country. Our commercial CCTV guide covers the basics. Used well, cameras help in three ways.

• Before: footage of a busy shift shows where people actually walk and where trucks actually turn, which is often not what the plan says. It is the best evidence for moving a walkway or adding a mirror.
• During: a camera at a blind intersection or a dock door gives a supervisor a view of places they cannot see from the floor.
• After: footage shows what happened in a near miss or an incident, so the investigation starts from facts. Real footage from your own site is also a strong training tool.

Forklift near-miss detection is not a standard feature of our software. We set it up for each site with the customer. We look at your cameras and your layout, agree what you want to be told about, and set it up with you. It is not switched on by default, and what it can do depends on what your cameras can see.

It does not stop a truck, and it does not replace operator training, marked routes, mirrors or the rules above. It gives you a photo of an event, so you can talk it through with the people involved.

Many sites already have cameras and a recorder (a DVR or NVR). They record. Nobody is looking at 2 a.m., and nobody is looking at the corner where trucks and people keep meeting.

Our software runs on a Windows PC at the site and works with the cameras and recorders that are already there: Hikvision and Prama, Dahua, CP Plus, TVT, Uniview, Axis, Hanwha, and any camera or recorder that supports RTSP or ONVIF. It installs in 60 seconds. Your recorder keeps recording as usual, and recordings stay on site.

Our own AI models, trained in-house, watch every camera for three things on every site: smoke and fire, people after hours in zones you mark, and a camera that has been covered. A second, larger model double-checks every event before you are alerted. Then the photo arrives on WhatsApp, Telegram or the Foreman app while it is still happening. Event clips are encrypted and deleted after 30 days, and we never train on your footage.

Beyond those, some things are set up for your site with you: forklift near-miss, helmet and vest checks, number-plate reading and idle machines.

A few honest limits. We do not sell cameras. We do not provide guards or a monitoring centre, so the alert comes to you and the people you choose. And where we watch for smoke and fire, we do not replace certified fire alarms or life-safety systems.