March/April 2013
Forklifts are a factor in many scrapyard injuries and fatalities. Recyclers can increase the safe operation of these machines through better operator training and equipment maintenance, safety experts say.
By Kim Fernandez
With forklifts, looks can be deceiving. They look like simple machines that are easy to master and operate safely. People don’t consider them dangerous pieces of equipment, says Rick Hare, director of safety and environmental compliance for Consolidated Scrap Resources (York, Pa.). “Unfortunately, they have the potential to be just that.”
Forklift accidents caused 86 fatalities in the United States in 2011, with an additional 6,170 individuals suffering forklift-related injuries requiring days away from work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Washington, D.C.)—and those are just the reported incidents. The scrap industry experiences some of those annual forklift fatalities and injuries, which is one reason why the bureau classifies the “refuse and recycling collection” industry—which includes scrap recycling—as the fourth deadliest in the country. In fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Washington, D.C.) cited scrap facilities for more forklift-related violations than any other single category of violations in 2012, says Joe Bateman, ISRI’s safety outreach manager.
Why do forklifts play a role in so many fatalities and injuries? There are numerous reasons, but two common causes are inadequate operator training and equipment failure. OSHA has extensive regulations outlined in its standards for industrial powered trucks (29 CFR 1910.178) to prevent problems in those two areas, among others. To meet OSHA’s requirements and protect their employees and operations, scrap recyclers must understand their compliance obligations and revisit their current forklift safety activities.
The Training Imperative
OSHA regulations are crystal clear on the issue of forklift training. All individuals who operate a forklift on the job must undergo training that includes “a combination of formal instruction (e.g., lecture, discussion, interactive computer learning, video tape, written material), practical training (demonstrations performed by the trainer and practical exercises performed by the trainee), and evaluation of the operator’s performance in the workplace.” Only individuals who have “the knowledge, training, and experience to train powered industrial truck operators and evaluate their competence” can conduct the training and evaluation. Employers must certify that they have trained and evaluated each forklift operator, noting the operator’s name, training date, evaluation date, and name of the trainer and/or evaluator. (Though OSHA does not require it, it’s a nice touch to give a wallet card or hard-hat sticker to forklift operators who successfully complete training, Bateman says.) In addition, the company must re-evaluate forklift operators at least once every three years, and operators must undergo refresher training whenever they are involved in an unsafe incident or accident or when there are changes in the workplace that could affect the safe operation of the forklift, such as new traffic patterns, the purchase of a new forklift, the installation of new equipment that requires forklift loading, or hard surfacing additional sections of a facility.
Inadequate operator training is a problem in the scrap industry, says Bateman, who has provided safety consultation services to more than 250 recycling operations. It’s not uncommon for scrap recyclers to “hire somebody off the street with little to no forklift experience” and allow that person to operate the machine right away, he says. That’s tantamount to allowing an unskilled, unlicensed person to drive a car. “You wouldn’t tell a 13-year-old to go get in that car and drive down the street,” he says. “Taking an inexperienced 25-year-old and putting [him] on a forklift is just as dangerous.”
Most of the common forklift safety mistakes boil down to training issues, Hare concurs. Those mistakes include exiting the forklift’s cab while the machine is running, driving too fast or with raised forks, backing up without looking over both shoulders, refusing to wear a seat belt, and tipping or rolling the machine. Tip-overs are a principal cause of forklift fatalities, Bateman says. “There’s a natural tendency to try and jump clear of the machine when it tips over,” he explains. “I know operators who have been killed because they tried to jump clear of a tipping forklift and didn’t make it.” Recycling operations can reduce or eliminate such fatalities by requiring forklift operators to wear a seat belt. Another repercussion of inadequate training is that operators don’t know what’s responsible, correct behavior, so they just imitate what they see around them, Bateman adds. “If they see somebody driving too fast, they’ll drive too fast.”
Walking the Training Walk
All Metals Market (Fremont, Neb.) is one scrap recycling company that takes its training obligations seriously. The company makes all forklift operator candidates undergo a four- to five-hour training process. First they watch a 20-minute video that reviews pre-operation inspections, propane tank changes, rollovers, loading, speed, and other safety issues, says Scott Washburn, accounts manager. Then trainees take a written test on the video’s contents. If they pass, it’s on to a driving test in the yard. Washburn checks whether the trainees conduct a pre-trip inspection, then he runs them through various exercises, such as picking up and moving a load, driving through a warehouse, navigating a ramp, using the forklift’s mirrors and horn properly, and transitioning from the bright exterior to the relative dark of the plant’s interior. All the while, he’s making critical observations on seat-belt use, driving speed, and management of blind spots. Trainees who pass the driving test receive a certificate of completion and can operate the forklift without direct supervision.
All Metals requires every newly hired forklift operator to take this training, even if the person is experienced. As Washburn explains to the trainees, the company must abide by OSHA guidelines, and forklift training and operations aren’t the same everywhere, so there could be gaps in the operator’s knowledge. “The basics are the same,” he says, “but where they operate the forklift and the environment around them can be completely different.” The company’s training process “not only provides safety to them, but also to the people they’ll be working around.” When he explains it that way, “the reaction is generally positive,” he says.
In keeping with OSHA regulations, All Metals’ forklift operators go through the entire training process again to get recertified every three years. “I don’t care if they’ve driven a forklift for 30 years,” Washburn says. “They need to watch the video, take the test, and be evaluated during practical driving.” Hare agrees with the need for regular, repetitive training. “You have to make people aware of the dangers,” he says. “In an industry where you’re bringing new people on board frequently, you have to reiterate that process.”
Safety Through Maintenance
OSHA regulations are equally unequivocal about forklift maintenance. “If at any time a powered industrial truck is found to be in need of repair, defective, or in any way unsafe, the truck shall be taken out of service until it has been restored to safe operating condition,” the regulations state.
To minimize mechanical problems, recycling facilities should conduct a daily inspection of every forklift they operate, Bateman says. Hare agrees, recommending that forklift operators go through a safety and maintenance checklist before they operate the machine. “You need to look at fluids, hoses, the [operator’s] cage—a whole list of points on the forklift. They all need to be [checked] every shift, so you might be doing it three times a day.” Consolidated Scrap also conducts a “full-blown” maintenance intervention on its forklifts every 200 operating hours. “In some areas where you don’t get a lot of use on a forklift, you don’t wait” for that degree of use, he says. “You set a standard that the forklift is maintained every four to six months no matter what the hours are.”
Tri-State Iron & Metal Co. (TexarÂkana, Ark.) is one scrap company that’s scrupulous about the forklift inspection process, requiring its operators to complete a half-page checklist before they use one of its forklifts or loaders. On the sheet, operators check off their specific equipment model from a list and select “OK” or “Not OK” for 10 specific features, including leaks, back-up alarm, horn and lights, seat-belt alarm/kill switch, and fire extinguisher, as well as the operational status of components such as controls, steering, brakes, parking brake, and mast and hydraulics. They then list any other maintenance issues they find, indicating whether the machine needs servicing. Finally, the operators date and sign the form. The signature requirement gives the inspectors a sense of ownership and prompts them to take better care of the forklift, says Rick McCloskey, plant manager. “That guy who drove it today is responsible for that form,” he says. “If he’s out running the machine and we find something that he didn’t check off, he takes ownership of that issue.”
After operators sign and date the forms for their equipment, Tri-State’s maintenance personnel review the forms, taking any necessary action. “If the operator finds anything wrong with a machine, it’s automatically locked out,” McCloskey says. “We’re very conscientious about all of it.” The company records information from the completed forms in a scrap management software program and files the hard-copy forms for future reference. “If we find anything wrong or there’s a work order, it’s recorded [in the software program],” he says. “So later we can call up any forklift and see all the service work that’s been done to it over its life.”
Tri-State’s safety team developed the daily checklist form in early 2010 to prevent the company’s equipment operators from starting machines too hastily at the beginning of a shift. “Everybody likes to jump on a forklift in the morning and take off,” he says. By making them fill out the form, which takes only a few minutes to complete, the company ensures that each forklift receives a visual inspection on maintenance points that can cause larger safety and operational problems if overlooked. The process has improved the safety and reliability of Tri-State’s forklift fleet, McCloskey says. “What we’ve found over time is that the forklifts don’t break down nearly as often as they used to.”
For Tri-State’s workers, the checklist has become part of their daily routine. “We had a little resistance in the beginning,” McCloskey says. “One or two guys decided this was going to be a pain, but they did it [for] a couple of days and saw it wasn’t so bad.” Now it only takes the company about five to 10 minutes to teach forklift operators how to conduct the daily inspection using the form. Tri-State must be on to something: Other scrap recyclers have asked McCloskey to share the checklist with them to use in their companies. (OSHA also offers sample daily checklists for powered industrial trucks at www.osha.gov/dte/library/pit/daily_pit_checklist.html.)
Operational Intelligence
OSHA’s industrial lift truck standards give further guidelines for operating and loading forklifts safely, such as the following points:
--Forklift operators should not drive up to anyone standing in front of a bench or other fixed object.
--Employers must prohibit any person from standing or passing under the elevated portion of any truck, whether loaded or empty.
--No person should place arms or legs between the uprights of the mast or outside the running lines of the truck.
--Forklift operators must maintain a safe distance from the edge of ramps or platforms while on any elevated dock, platform, or freight car. They also should not use a lift truck to open or close freight doors.
--Forklift operators must slow down and sound the horn at cross aisles and other locations where vision is obstructed. If the load being carried obstructs forward view, the operator must travel with the load trailing.
--Employers must prohibit forklift operators from engaging in stunt driving and horseplay.
--Forklift operators must avoid running over loose objects.
--Operators should only handle loads within the forklift’s rated capacity.
(For OSHA’s complete list of operational requirements, consult 29 CFR 1910.178.)
Some recycling companies have taken additional steps to improve the safety of their forklift fleets. Consolidated Scrap, for example, removes the side-view mirrors from its forklifts to reduce the likelihood of backing-up accidents. “I am totally against the use of mirrors,” Hare says. Side-view mirrors provide a view along each side of the forklift, he says, but “it’s not until you look over both shoulders that you see what’s behind you,” he says. If the operator relies only on the side-view mirrors, he or she is missing potential objects or pedestrians in the blind spot behind the machine’s counterweight. For those safety reasons, he says, “we removed every mirror we had,” forcing operators to turn their heads and look in every direction.
Though their specific practices might differ, safety-conscious recyclers know that fastidious attention to forklift training and maintenance can both help them comply with OSHA regulations and protect their employees, customers, and operations from harm.
Kim Fernandez is a writer based in Bethesda, Md.