5 Reasons to Follow OSHA’s Daily Forklift Check Rule

If you run forklifts, OSHA requires each one to be examined before it is placed in service, at least daily. Where trucks run around the clock, they are examined after each shift. A truck is not to be used if the examination finds anything that affects its safety, and defects are to be reported and corrected right away. That is 29 CFR 1910.178(q)(7).

It can feel like a chore: a few minutes per truck, per shift, every day. Here are five reasons it is worth doing properly.

1. It is the law, and the fines are real

The maximum OSHA penalty is $16,550 for each serious violation and $165,514 for each willful or repeated one. Those amounts were not raised for 2026. Forklifts are a regular target: powered industrial trucks were the eighth most-cited standard in fiscal year 2025, with 2,150 violations, and are seventh on OSHA’s preliminary list for 2026.

2. Inspectors are looking at warehouses

OSHA runs a national emphasis program for warehouses and distribution centers. It was renewed in July 2026 and runs for five years from July 31, 2026. Inspections under it focus on hazards common to those workplaces, and the first one the directive lists is powered industrial vehicle operations.

3. It prevents injuries

Forklifts were the source of 84 work-related deaths in the United States in 2024, and of 25,110 serious injuries in 2023 and 2024, according to the National Safety Council. A check will not prevent all of that. It does catch the brake that has gone soft, the horn that has stopped working and the leak under the mast before the truck is carrying a load past people.

4. Small faults stay small

A worn tire or a weeping hose found at the start of a shift is a scheduled repair. The same fault found when the truck stops in an aisle is a breakdown, a truck out of service and a shift rearranged around it. The rule asks for defects to be reported and corrected when they are found, which is also how equipment lasts.

5. You can show it was done

OSHA has said in a letter of interpretation that the examination has to be carried out, but does not have to be recorded in writing. A record is still worth having. After an incident or during an inspection, it is how you show that the truck was checked, by whom, and what was done about anything that failed.

Making the rule hard to skip

The weak point of a paper checklist is that the truck starts whether or not it was filled in. The SM301 puts the check on the truck: the operator signs in, answers the questions, and only then does the truck start. Each check is stored with the operator, the truck and the time, and reports can be emailed to you on a schedule.

For how to set the program up, see how to implement a daily safety check program. The next step after that is a one-hour online demo: book one here.