Would anybody be able to give me some advice on safe forklift lifts? This morning, one of our drivers took it upon himself to lift some rectangular hollow section at 6m long on the forklift. As he did, one length of steel slid off the forks and hit a cable in the workshop. The cable is damaged and we can thankfully consider this a minor incident in terms of damage, but the consequences could have been severe if someone had been walking by and the steel hit them instead.

My question is, what's an acceptable length of steel to carry without supervision/observation from another person on the ground. I'm not a forklift driver, but I imagine it's not easy to balance that length over any distance, albeit the ground is pretty smooth. What I don't understand is why he didn't use the sideloader which was available. But I'm yet to establish if he was instructed by the supervisor, in which case it may be a different discussion I'm having. 

Any advice/comments welcome.

Thanks

Kelly

The driver won't have taken it upon themself - they were given an incomplete (how to) order or instruction to move the steel. Your point is they used an FLT unsutiable for the load requiring transport.

The side loader will have been specifically purchased (or hired) because of these long materials needing to be safely transported.

This sounds to be a failure of either the individuals training (new employee? missing instruction from a Risk Assessment?) or a failure in supervision ("using the sideloader take.....").

As to what would be a suitable load we have no concept of your factory layout or the specific vehicle being used so it would be inappropriate to offer guidance - speak to the manufacturer as to what they specifiy for the model of truck used.

Hi Kelly,

As a rough guide you wouldn't want to be lifting anything more than 3 times the width of the truck and this would depend on the centre of gravity of the load (heavy at one end).

Same as most things, this will come down to a risk assessment looking at the SWL of the FLT, fork attachements (our trucks have spreader forks, which makes the forks wider etc), environment etc and all things I imagine you are already aware off. Looking at lifting plans could be a help as well.

I would put a call into your FLT training provider as they should be able to give you some good advice, as well asking your FLT's operators. You will probably find this is not the first time an FLT has been used for this purpose.

Feel free to PM me if you need any addtional help.

Transporting steel on steel forks is never a good idea as they are likely to slip due to lack of friction. The steel should be transported on a pallet or secured together and to the forklift. As others have said already the lenght of the steel is not the really important part but the balancing of the steel needs to be correct- Law of the Lever comes to mind.

Kevin

Originally Posted by: kellyrobertson

Would anybody be able to give me some advice on safe forklift lifts? This morning, one of our drivers took it upon himself to lift some rectangular hollow section at 6m long on the forklift. As he did, one length of steel slid off the forks and hit a cable in the workshop. The cable is damaged and we can thankfully consider this a minor incident in terms of damage, but the consequences could have been severe if someone had been walking by and the steel hit them instead.

My question is, what's an acceptable length of steel to carry without supervision/observation from another person on the ground. I'm not a forklift driver, but I imagine it's not easy to balance that length over any distance, albeit the ground is pretty smooth. What I don't understand is why he didn't use the sideloader which was available. But I'm yet to establish if he was instructed by the supervisor, in which case it may be a different discussion I'm having. 

Any advice/comments welcome.

Thanks

Kelly

This is a sensitive topic, it requires the insurance of the user of the used forklift. And ofc forklifts have diferent dimensions and differenc capacities that can carry...maybe you still have the "manual or some documents of the one that you're using

REPORTED

If nothing else it saves several others from wasting their time following click bait.

Bit like putting out the sign that says slippery floor rather than just walking by.

Originally Posted by: jmaclaughlin

As a very rough rule of thumb, a load about the size of a pallet which is roughly 1000 x 1200.

Also need to consider SWL, height of lift, terrain, landing area etc etc.

All basic things covered in any decent FLT course.

I agree with John - anything that projects beyond the actual footprint of the FLT is too long to be carried on a standard FLT.  If you don't know much about FLT's then get yourself on a course, you can do the theory separately to the practical but I would recommend doing the whole course.  If you are managing in a workplace where such equipment is used you need to understand FLT safety, load centres, safe working loads, etc, etc.  Remember also that there is legal precedent of prosecution of employers and individuals in relation to their H&S person not having required competence to deal with specific risks and in the case I'm thinking the risk was specifically FLTs