Forklift abuse: Lets stamp it out Together

Are you worried about forklift abuse in your workplace and are you aware that it is going on, and did you know there are ways of significantly reducing incidences to gain the best performance from your machines?  

There are several warning devices that are available when trying to stop this abuse in the workplace.

One device is your own swipe-on card, per person to record all information (great if used correctly), the system has impact sensors so that if an operator is careless and drives into something the machine can be shut down until further investigation, (excellent great safety feature) to report overloading and who is responsible (again great feature), provided the swipe card is being used correctly.  There are transmission cut outs with stop to change directions to help transmissions take the abuse however, instead of being the big brother and pointing the finger at who is responsible.  How do we stop this behaviour in the first instance?

Forklift abuse is very costly for everyone and rather than point the finger, we feel there has to be solutions to not only monitor the situation but prevent it.  We found the problem with all forklift abuse, if our forklifts are being abused so is the product being carried on the forklift; this affects driveways, buildings, cars in the car park, and people in the area.  

As you are aware the knock on effect not only affects the machines performance, it reflects on the total performance of the company that is operating the forklift. These costs unfortunately are irreversible and are something that eventually the end user will have difficulty in paying.  The sad part is it happens in nearly all industries and not just with forklifts, eventually we all pay including the operator causing this issue.

Firstly educating the operator to understand the implications of this behaviour in stopping the abuse will allow them to be more productive and therefore creating better profit margins.  It also allows the customer to receive their products at a better overall operating cost due to more efficient behaviours.

There are also modules that can be fitted to forklifts to enhance the behaviour and assist in correcting the abuse. The unit we have developed with the help of suppliers is a transmission controller that protects the machine without losing the integrity of the machine. This unit has 3 functions to assist, firstly to stop the operator from changing directions without stopping, secondly the operator is unable to rev the machine and then select a gear or direction, and thirdly are unable to dump the inching valve as well.

This not only educates the operator that there is no point in operating in their previous manner, it improves tyre wear up to 70% and has less impact on the total drive line of the machine.  The unit can be coupled with swipe cards, knock sensors and speed limiting that can all improve operator behaviour.

If you are concerned about forklift abuse, we can assist with advice and solutions for many situations.  Give G & M Forklift a call on 08 9377 3321