Posted By Mike Hann One of our employees has been told by our company doctor that due to his poor eyesight, he cannot continue to drive fork lift trucks. We have stopped him driving fork lift trucks and he is currently operating ride on powered picking trucks inside the warehouse to move pallets at ground level. We understand that for fork lift truck operators the eyesight standard should be "distant vision not less than 6/12" but can find nothing specific to ride on powered picking trucks. Can anyone please advise where we can find out the required standards of eyesight for powered pallet truck operators so that we can have him assessed against these. Many thanks in advance. Mike

Posted By Glyn Atkinson We keep our driving eyesight policy as simple as possible - if you have failed the occupational health department eyesight test for a fork lift truck, you don't drive ANY company vehicles for transporting goods on or off site until you have seen an optometrist and been passed as fit, or have been supplied with suitable glasses that will aid your vision. For instance, depth perception at ground level is just as important as depth perception at height and distance in my personal view, so why put someone into a different driving job that may still give him load alignment difficulties and the possibility of an accident / incident occurring?

Posted By Mike Hann Many thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. All comments noted. Mike