Before you go for Toyota forklift hire in Durban, it’s crucial to ensure that you have good safety practices in place to prevent accidents.You’ve no doubt heard all the safety mantras being thrown around ad nauseum: do your checks, follow the manual, and wear your PPE. Although these things are certainly important, what’s often overlooked is the strategic and practical approach that embeds safety into the culture and daily habits of everyone on your site, from floor staff to managers.
Here are some actionable tips to achieve this:
Create A Culture Of Safety Ownership
Safety should be seen as something owned by everyone – not just a matter of compliance. Workers should be encouraged to see it as their personal responsibility and not just something that management enforces.
This can be achieved through creating visible recognition programmes for employees who report near misses or suggest safety improvements. You could also incorporate the appointment of a safety champion within each team, who leads by example, rather than just having a supervisor with a clipboard.
Use Visual Learning
You might encounter language and literacy barriers among your workforce, which makes it difficult to communicate the complexities of safety procedures with everyone. Relying solely on written protocols is often ineffective in such an environment.
Therefore, consider using video-based training with local language options or re-enacting past forklift accidents as part of the training to drive home the real-world consequences of negligence.
Displaying visual cue posters in key areas can also help define unsafe and safe behaviours in action without relying on text or speech.
Segregate Traffic Smartly
Segregating traffic within your warehouses doesn’t have to be an expensive, high-tech endeavour. With a bit of paint and some chains or barriers, you can clearly demarcate forklift zones versus pedestrian paths.
You can also design one-way routes within your warehouse operations to reduce blind spot collisions caused by reversing. Introducing colour-coded floor markings can help show where it’s safe to walk and where forklifts should slow down or where high-alert zones exist.
Involve Workers In Risk Assessments
Many companies make the mistake of implementing top-down assessments that are done by outside consultants or disconnected office staff. However, letting the forklift operators themselves walk the site to identify risks or setup flaws can go a long way towards helping them own the safety component of forklift operation.
At First Forklifts, we promote safe Toyota forklift hire in Durban. Contact us now for further information on our forklift options, or check out our rental fleet on our website.