Of course, safe work begins and ends with the forklift. What measures we take, even with the safest truck in the safest warehouse continues to make it possible accidents. Nevertheless, technical aids can indeed contribute to increasing safety. In this section we put five tools for you below. Part two will follow another five.
Show yourself
A pedestrian involved in four out of ten truck accidents. The problem is that often leaves much to be desired visibility of pedestrians. That is certainly true of men in gray suits who are another unknown in the warehouse. A simple and inexpensive measure is attracting a fluorescent safety vest, so pedestrians are often visible from a great distance. For fixed warehouse employees is workwear in bright signal colors, may be provided with reflective strips, a good alternative.
Look in the mirror
Fluorescent vests help obviously not as pedestrian conceals packed pallet racks or other obstacles. In that case on unclear points is a godsend. With it is possible from every direction of travel and the left or right at any distance in order to look at the corner of a rack. Also help here fluorescent vests and signal colors to quickly identify approaching pedestrians in the small mirror.
Warn with light signals
Reversing visibility remains a problem. A forklift driver looking over his right shoulder will see pedestrians and other traffic from the left rather well arrive. This is different to traffic from the right derived from the viewpoint of the driver from a ‘blind spot’. Therefore let trucks beep when they are put in the ‘backward’. A popular alternative is an LED lamp on the cage – with names like blue spot or floor spot – during reversing a typically blue light projected on the floor. Pedestrians who cannot see the truck itself even be warned by the usually fast approaching next light spot.
Watching with cameras
Another problem remains the view from a great height. Who with a truck has ever put away a pallet at eleven meters, knows the problem. Try this situation from the driver’s seat once again to estimate the height. If it is not possible to accurately position the forks, it is likely that the pallet falls down. A camera on the fork combined with a monitor in the cab offers the driver a view that he needs to pick or put away pallets at height.
Throw blockages
Cargo can fall as drivers in reflective vest try to place a pallet at locations that are not big enough. Think for example of which pair of locations on the upper girders of pallet racks which are less high because of pipes, roof trusses or ventilation grilles than surrounding locations. In warehouses in which drivers are controlled by a warehouse management system, it is possible to block these locations with the software. That means that no driver ever is instructed to place a pallet. If it is going too far, the WMS can be tuned such that upon impact of activity is taken into account, the height of the pallet and of the storage.
