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National Forklift Safety Day is one of the UK material handling sector’s most important initiatives, aiming to spread awareness about the significance of operator training and the safe use of forklift. Beginning on June 11th, this year’s online campaign is supported by the theme ‘Prevent – Manage – Learn’.This succinct tagline reflects the UK Material Handling Association’s (UKMHA) ambition to educate people about what to do before, during and after an incident.
Commenting on the campaign, David Goss, the UKMHA’s Technical Director, said: “National Forklift Safety Day provides us with an ideal opportunity to reinforce the importance of safe working practices for those who work with material handling equipment. The UKMHA is committed to helping companies and operators to uphold the highest standards of safety, and this global initiative goes a long way towards achieving that goal”.
National Forklift Safety Day 2024 will largely focus on exploring the 7 stages of the forklift incident cycle. The UKMHA will be releasing impactful content relevant to each stage of the cycle across the following dates:
- Prepare: Tuesday 11 June
- Respond: Wednesday 10 July
- Investigate: Thursday 8 August
- Report: Friday 13 September
- Restart: Saturday 12 October
- Learn: Sunday 10 November
- Prevent: Monday 9 December
Each stage represents a specific strategy for dealing with a forklift incident. By spreading our campaign across 7 months, we hope to fulfil our ambition to ‘make every day National Forklift Safety Day’. The first stage, Prepare, delves into the preparatory steps that should be taken to minimise the chance of a forklift incident. We will be releasing various resources to support this part of the campaign, including compliance checklists, animation videos, and health and safety checklists.
The National Forklift Safety Day initiative has been raising awareness about the safe use of material handling equipment since 2014. NFSD took place in the United States until 2019, when the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA) took over the campaign. BITA eventually merged with the Forklift Truck Association (FLTA) to create the UKMHA, the trade association that has organised National Forklift Safety Day ever since.
Dedicated to promoting safety standards across the entire material handling industry, the UKMHA invites everyone to participate in National Forklift Safety Day 2024. From forklift operators looking to enhance their knowledge of safety protocols to managers interested in improving their operator training programs, the campaign will be of great value to everyone in material handling.
Visit the official National Forklift Safety Day website for more information.