How can operator habits affect forklift/product damage?

We all know the effect a small habit can have. A poor eating habit turns into weight gain, and weight gain into health problems. We also know that a small change can turn it around, and that a tool makes the change easier: a food tracker or a fitness tracker shows you what you are doing.

Lift truck operators are no different. A small habit on a forklift, repeated every shift, becomes premature wear, damaged product and bent racking. Left unmanaged, it becomes an unsafe place to work.

The habits that cost money

• Taking corners and aisle ends a little too fast, and clipping the racking.
• Pushing pallets into place with the fork tips.
• Stopping against the dock plate or the trailer wall instead of short of it.
• Driving on with a fault, such as a worn tire or a leaking hose, until it becomes a repair.
• Not reporting a bump, so the damaged upright stays in service.

There is no reliable published figure for what this costs across the industry, and we will not quote one. You have a better number anyway: your own repair invoices, damaged-goods write-offs and racking inspections.

Put a name on every start

With access control, each authorized operator enters their own code or scans their own card or fob to start the truck. Every event the unit records is then tied to that person. Operators who know a truck is signed out to them drive it differently.

Set the standard

Operators cannot meet a standard nobody has written down. Work with your safety committee to define what acceptable condition and acceptable driving look like for each type of equipment, and build the daily safety check around it. On the SM301 the operator completes that check before the truck will start, so the standard is in front of them every shift.

Show the operator the impact

This is the fitness tracker. The impact module for the SM301 monitors impacts on three axes and shows the actual impact to the operator on the unit’s screen, without interrupting the truck. The operator sees straight away that the corner was taken too hard. It comes with nine settings for different equipment types and applications, and each can be adjusted.

When something is damaged and nobody says anything, the last operator search on the SM301 shows who was on the truck.

Follow up

The portal records each truck’s hours and service intervals alongside who used it, which checks failed and what was done about them. Pull the reports, or have them emailed to you, and use them to point out specific problems and to recognize good work. A habit changes when someone notices it.

For the habits that put people at risk, see common bad habits of forklift operators. The next step is a one-hour online demo: book one here.