In what is described as its most ambitious initiative to date, the Fork Lift Truck Association is spearheading a nationwide drive to improve safety at every site that uses fork lift trucks: be it one or one hundred.
The Safer Site Programme is a free, online, step-by-step safety programme that anyone can implement.
The idea is simple: each month the FLTA will publish on its website a new step in the programme. Each step will contain advice, guidance, resources and a series of practical tasks that must be completed to move through the process.
The aim of the programme is threefold:
1. to actively drive down the number and frequency of fork lift truck accidents ā and near misses ā in the UK
2. to share successful safety initiatives between companies who operate fork lift trucks and to improve the general level of safety precautions on UK fork lift truck sites
3. to encourage open, blame-free incidence reporting so that everyone feels able to highlight dangerous practices freely and without recriminations
Head to the FLTA website to find out more, or to take your first step on the programme, visit the FLTA website where you will find all the information you need.
To add an element of fun and competition, the Association is also asking everyone taking part in the programme to take a āselfieā photograph of the most important safety feature on their site.
Called a āSafety Selfieā, the photo should include both the safety feature AND the person responsible for implementing that safety initiative on the site.
Ten lucky winners in the competition will each receive a Kindle Fire HD tablet thanks to generous sponsorship from Rivermore Asset Finance, who are marking a decade supporting the materials handling industry.
The competition will run until 31st December 2014 and is open to anyone who works on or around fork lift trucks (full details are on the FLTA website). To check out the entries so far, head to the special āSafety Selfieā gallery on the website.
How to save a life: a roadmap to a safer site
The FLTA would urge every person reading this, and every company whose work involves fork lift trucks, to participate in the Safer Site Programme and take this simple first step for their colleaguesā benefit, and their own.
If you want to know how to save a life, now or in the future, this is it.
The Fork Lift Truck Association is the UKās independent authority on fork lift trucks. For more information, please visit www.fork-truck.org.uk or call 01635 277577.