The 2024 campaign has been spread across the past seven months rather than focus on a single day in June
Striving to make workplaces where material handling equipment is used safer environments has been the cornerstone of National Forklift Safety Day (NFSD) since the campaign launched six years ago.
Supported by the tagline ‘Prevent – Manage – Learn’, the 2024 campaign has been spread across the past seven months rather than focus on a single day in June.
As such, the ethos of ‘Make Every Day National Forklift Safety Day’ has taken on added significance.
Each stage of the campaign has seen the release of new resources designed to reinforce a particular message.
The final stage of the campaign looks at accident prevention and the tools available to operators looking to improve the efficiency of their lift truck operations and the safety of their sites.
There is a strong focus on the use of lift truck telematics to improve safety and efficiency.
The UK Material Handling Association (UKMHA), which organises NFSD, has conducted a series of interviews with manufacturing members to outline the different types of telematics systems now available and how the data they gather can massively reduce risk in the workplace.
The resources include a harrowing interview video with Lisa Ramos, whose life was irrevocably changed in 2006 when she became an above-knee amputee after an accident where a fork lift truck reversed into her while she was in a designated walkway area in the warehouse where she worked with her husband.
She describes how the accident, which happened on her son’s 13th birthday, devastated her life and that of her family. She now campaigns for greater safety awareness in the workplace and urges businesses to take greater responsibility for the safety of their workforce.
A proactive approach to Near Miss reporting is also a major aspect of the prevention campaign.
This identifies what is classed as a ‘near miss’ and how lessons can be learned from them in order to improve future site safety plans.
Available exclusively to UKMHA members, there is a further report outlining the importance of operator and supervisor training in helping to prevent workplace accidents involving forklift trucks.
David Goss, Technical Director, UKMHA said: “The radical approach we have taken for the 2024 NFSD campaign has enabled us to give an in-depth focus on this vitally important issue – what to do in the event of an incident.
"The extended duration of the campaign has seen the UKMHA provide a wealth of crucial information that will enhance workplace safety and minimise the impact of an incident.
“For the final segment of the campaign we are focussing on incident prevention and how the increasing use of automated functionality, such as telematics can help achieve positive results in terms of accidents and risk reduction.
"I would urge all businesses using material handling equipment in the course of their operations to make sure they are industry-compliant.”