After an increasing amount of FLT related incidents this year I want to put in some sort of safety improvement scheme. Some of the incidents have just been down to pure carelessness, but others are due to the fact that it is our peak production period and the pressure is on.

I have personally given a toolbox talk to all FLT drivers and got some good feedback from them regarding their issues (mainly production pressures), senior management attitude is safety comes first. This toolbox talk didn't have much of an impact as in the following week we had another two incidents. So far all incidents have been fairly minor, but I live in fear the next one will be more serious

I have carried out a full assessment of the FLTs we use, how we use them and where they are used, there are one or two areas where improvements can be made, but the biggest area in need of improvement is the drivers mindset, but where to start? I have considered a points penalty system, but would prefer not to use disciplinary tactics. We are looking at job swap as there are niggles between two departments, the feeling is that if they are fully aware how their work affects the other they may be more inclined to work together, but this is not practical while we are so busy. Has anyone tried anything else that has worked for them?

Carol

Possibly a need for some training of those responsible for supervising the FLT drivers. Not the full training that the driver gets but to point out the typical bad habits that drivers get into.

Hi Carol,

One thing I trialled was having the MHE Trainer (if you have your own) assessing the drivers without their knowing and score them as if it was a test, then feeding back to them the results, any that failed or were seen as being dangerous were re-tested.

Once they knew what was going on, just having the trainer on the floor with a clip board had a good effect!

Its difficult to get a mind set change, they would never drive their car the way they drive MHE, bumping and scraping things and other trucks. Another system I have previously used is a system called Tracker which logged everything the driver did including any impacts. An impact would also immobilize the truck and sound an alarm, the truck could only be restarted by a Manager thus the MHE Operator could not avoid reporting the incident. The impacts per operator can be logged and trends analyzed.

The mindset that they are under pressure and have time constraints is a familiar one and one that is normally driven by Managers and hard to overcome. Limiting the speed of the trucks is also effective (ours are set at 7KPH).

There did used to be some good FLT Safety DVD's on the market (some graphic) which does hammer the message home.

Good Luck!

I found this to be quite useful.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/re...hsl_pdf/2005/hsl0503.pdf

The tracker system mentioned is also a good tool- we had it at my last employer and does focus the mind.

Andy

Hi Carol,

I believe a strong enforcement (penalty system) to impose on the Incident involved worker,as a lesson learnt to others.This will make a immediate impact in the workers mind set.But very next you have to look upon and encourage/appreciate any forklift operator in similar group, for his safe working performance and to give him any safe worker award/gift vouchers to motivate him and a lesson learnt to others, that following safe work practice will have a benifits always to the individuals and to the organisation.

Thus to avoid incidents due to unsafe practices.

Hi Carol, I used to work in an FLT manufacturing plant building around 80/day supported by a fleet of 40 trucks of various sizes. We had the same problem with high levels of incidents.

We did lots of things around training, awareness, employee involvement etc.

However, the one thing that worked was clearly telling the organisation (not just the drivers) what accepted operating behaviours were and the consequences should they not be followed. This is following on from Chris's previous comment.

You need to remember that in most cases people do not set out to behave unsafely, there is usually an underpinning reason which they feel justifies the behaviour - just trying to meet production schedules, supervisor has condoned same behaviour before, etc.

The whole organisation needs to understand that FLT accidents can be fatal, that certain behaviours regarding their use wont be tolerated and what the organisation will do should the behaviours be observed or reported.

Took a few months but delivered a sustained improvement - lots of counterweights without scuff marks!!!