March 11, 2025 • 19 mins
Think driving a forklift is just like driving a car? Not even close. Forklifts are a leading cause of workplace injuries, and many companies don’t even realize they may be out of compliance with OSHA regulations... until an accident happens and they're in trouble. In this episode you’ll learn why proper forklift training isn’t just a formality, but a critical safety measure that protects your workers, reduces liability, and keeps your operation running smoothly.
We break down why certification is required for every model of industrial lift your business uses, the most common mistakes companies make, and the small but serious OSHA violations that can lead to major problems. You’ll also hear real examples of forklift accidents and simple ways to prevent them.
We've even got a story for you about training our very own Life Safety team on how to drive our forklift (spoiler: the ladies took the wheel on this one!).
So whether forklifts are part of your daily routine, or just an obstacle you dodge in a warehouse aisle, this episode is packed with safety tips you won’t want to miss.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jimmy (00:00):
What's happening?
It's your boy, jimmy, withanother life and safety podcast.
Today we got Queen Bee Jennyhanging out with us.
Today, the boss lady, aka theoff-duty coordinator, aka mom.
Jenny (00:17):
We're all pretty badass here.
Jimmy (00:19):
Yeah, all the life safety .
Jenny (00:20):
Ladies, we got to keep up with you guys.
Jimmy (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Something like that, somethinglike that, all right team.
So today we're going to talkabout something that not a lot
of people know that we do hereat Life Safety, and that's
forklift training.
Yep, forklift training and itkind of came to fruition years
(00:43):
ago with the original ownersthat there was a need for people
to need forklift training, andsince life safety was already in
their system, it just madesense for us to start doing it.
So, with that being said, whydo we need to have forklift
(01:05):
training, right?
Well, forklift hurt more peoplethan most accidents in the
workplace.
It's one of the most commonthings, it's always in the top
10 OSHA violations and it's verycostly.
(01:29):
Not only is it it money costly,but it's time person costly.
If somebody gets hurt, they'regoing to be out for a while and
the crazy thing is, when peopleget hurt on forklifts, it's
usually because they've gotthey're on a ladder and they get
hit.
Some people running people withladders.
Jenny (01:44):
That sounds so sketchy.
Jimmy (01:46):
Isn't that wild, yeah yeah.
And another old school one.
It doesn't happen much anymore,but this comes up in our class
quite a bit because we go overthe posted rules and there's X
amount of rules that you have tokind of go over and understand
before you can drive a forklift,amount of rules that you have
to kind of go over andunderstand before you can drive
(02:07):
a forklift, and it's basicallythe safety rules poster that
everybody's supposed to haveposted with their forklift.
And just FYI, that's one of themost common violations.
When OSHA walks through They'llsay something like hey, jenny,
I see you on this forklift,where's your forklift rules and
things posted at.
And Jenny's supposed to know.
Jenny (02:28):
So people don't have literally the poster posted yeah
.
That's like the easiest thingto do, right, yeah.
Jimmy (02:36):
And so we actually kind of go over that and we actually
give them the paper copy of therules so they can then put them
on the forklift.
At least they're not posted,but at least they're there,
they're accessible.
And then you know hopefullythat's a memory jogger to do
those things right later, not tocatch somebody or to in between
(03:03):
the forks, or to back up andpinch somebody or try to impede
their walk with a forklift,because you'll squish them Right
.
These things weigh lots andthey're huge.
They weigh lots and lots ofweight.
Jenny (03:18):
Don't try and like cut in front of somebody.
Exactly or like sneak in frontof them them so they can't walk
down the aisle exactly I feellike that's the same as like
with a car.
Jimmy (03:30):
That's not very safe right, or imagine me trying to
walk up and like catch you inbetween the four o'clock so I
can talk to you yeah, I thinkI'd be a little scared right.
Well, that's actually where therule comes from.
The rule actually came fromwhen women enter the workforce
and, for whatever reason,they're in the workforce.
(03:52):
The guys in the warehouses andstuff like that were trying to
talk to them and they would tryto pull up to them and be like,
hey, girl what's up?
Jenny (04:00):
What's up?
So you're harassing me andyou're trapping me between
forklifts.
Jimmy (04:03):
Yes, no.
Jenny (04:07):
That's wild, Wild, old school outdated thing right.
Jimmy (04:12):
So we actually have a forklift training VHS tape
that's a gazillion years old andit actually has a segment in
there and it's like jane'shusband died in vietnam.
She needed to start working.
(04:33):
Joe likes jane and he's gonnaask her out to dinner and pulls
up to her in the forklift withthe forks up and actually like
hits her in the face and it'slike doesn't look like joe's
gonna get his date tonight, kindof a thing that's horrible,
like you're pulling out, likethe big giant tv with bunny ears
(04:54):
on the rolling platform yesin elementary school old school
to show that yeah yeah, with thev, with the VHS tape.
Times have changed, thankgoodness.
Right, so super random.
So that's one of those weirdrules that we have to go over
and we just talk about and Ialways tell people those rules
(05:15):
are written in blood becausesomebody's been hurt or
somebody's done something toinitiate that rule Right.
That rule right.
One of the rules on there isyou can't drive and, while
you're in motion, stick yourhands outside of the running
lines, so you can't stick yourhands outside of the forklift.
Jenny (05:33):
so it's like sticking your hands outside the uh, the
roller coaster yeah, exactlyyour manos de los pies yes.
Jimmy (05:41):
So what happens?
If you stick your hands outsidethe the forklift and you're
driving next to a big rack ofpallets and stuff on it?
You get your arm stuck.
So that's a big one.
That's another violation.
Actually, people hit racks andstuff like that and there's
videos all over youtube if youwant to see those kind of things
(06:03):
.
Now, another fun rule that Ialways like talking about is
when people lift their legsthings and they put them on
shelving and then I actuallycall it.
I probably couldn't, shouldn't,call it to say this name of the
store I always referenceprobably not no, but it's a big
(06:26):
construction box store entereither one of them and every
time I'm in there there's alwayssomebody like you know, have
something up on the thing andthey're telling the other
co-worker just grab that rightthere.
And they stick their handunderneath the forks or next to
the chain, the mast of itlifting and moving and that kind
of stuff.
It's just super sketch, sodon't do that.
(06:49):
Now, another big violation isthe pre-flight inspection.
Is the pre-flight inspection?
So OSHA states that you have todo an inspection every eight
hours.
Okay, and if anything's wrongwith it safety-wise, you have to
(07:12):
take it out of commission.
So that's always a contentiouspoint when I go to new clients,
especially because that's one ofthe things that in the poster
the two easiest things nobodyever does.
Jenny (07:31):
How do you track that?
Are you?
Is there like a list?
Is it a checklist?
Is it changing shifts?
How do you track?
Jimmy (07:39):
how many hours is it?
A lot of people do itdifferently.
The most common is there's abook on the forklift with a
checklist in it and it just hasthe date and the time it was
done.
And that's cool, as long aseverybody looks at it and makes
sure it was done, all good.
Highly recommend you look at itand make sure it was done, all
good.
Highly recommend you look at itand you do it mentally.
Or, if you want to do your walkaround portion of it, check it,
(08:02):
make sure like there's no paint, scratch or dents, anything
like that, because if there issomebody hit something right and
if you're the last one on it,you're going to get blamed for
it, so always c with that.
A lot of clients are going to QRcodes, so they're making
stickers and they're puttingthem on there and they're going
to a sheet that you can fill out.
(08:23):
That's cool yeah, it's reallycool and obviously reduces paper
things like that.
But what it really does is itmakes the person that's on it
have to do the checklist yes,because you can't see the
history exactly right.
So it works really good.
It works really good, so Ireally like that.
(08:44):
Um the some of the employeestakes a little hard to get used
to, right, like with any kind ofchange.
It's hard but it's a good thing.
Um now kind of a story I givewhen people are tilting and
loading forklifts the pallets onthe lifts is my son and I two
(09:08):
different times we actually wentto one of those big
construction um still box storesand we saw twice a pallet of
toilets get knocked off the back.
Do you remember us coming homeand telling you this?
Jenny (09:22):
I don't.
I feel like I should, but Idon't that's all good to
remember, but you know thatsounds like it would be
interesting to see it was veryinteresting.
Jimmy (09:31):
But team to be fair, I tell jenny lots of stories and I
and I talk too much at homesometimes.
So Jenny, really—.
Jenny (09:40):
There are so many stories I cannot remember them all.
But on the bright side,sometimes they feel new again.
Jimmy (09:46):
Thank you for bailing me out.
I would say so.
Sometimes.
She just shuts me out andthat's all good, I get it.
Jenny (09:51):
I mean, it depends on the day and my story and tolerance.
Fair enough.
Jimmy (09:57):
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Yeah, this podcast was youridea.
No, I'm teasing, it was Thanksfor playing along.
Jenny (10:06):
Oh good, so the toilets.
Jimmy (10:09):
Yeah, so persons, I was going to get there.
I like to weave my storiesTelling my business woman.
So we're there and I think ourson, jamison, was 12 or 13.
So this was some time ago.
I was watching the forklift guybecause he looked very unsteady
(10:30):
and the way he was moving themast the mast is the part that
tilts the forks up back andforth and makes it go up and
down, so a big deal.
And I was watching him and Iwas like that doesn't look right
.
This will be interesting.
And he loads it, gets the palletto the very highest rack and
(10:51):
starts driving in and I go well,okay, I see what you're doing
there.
Good, so far, so good.
And he takes the pallet and hestarts pushing the back pallet
away from him.
So there's two racks, there's apallet on the other side, a
(11:12):
pallet in the middle and thepallet he's putting on and he's
making room by pushing thepallet that's in the middle
towards the other side of theaisle.
And I said that's gonna falloff and, jameson's, what are you
talking about?
I said, watch, let's back up alittle bit, because that's gonna
be a lot of stuff lying.
And he's like what do you mean?
I said look at that top box upthere.
(11:33):
It's all those toilets they'regonna fall off the top and 30
seconds later toilet avalancheand a pallet of toilets and
porcelain.
It just goes flying everywherethat's dangerous right
especially in a store like that,with people everywhere.
Like that can't be good no, andthey didn't have the other aisle
(11:56):
blocked off so therepotentially could have been
people there.
We're only maybe 30 feet away,so we definitely had some
porcelain shrapnel come and hitus and you know, my son being
our son goes.
That was awesome and I was likeit was kind of awesome and I
(12:17):
was like hold on, son, and Iactually walked over and I put
my business card, life safetycard on the seat so they never
call.
And every time I'm in one ofthose stores not every time for
a long time there I actuallyused to put my card on their
seats, but I don't do thatanymore.
But I've actually seen thathappen twice in the same store.
(12:38):
They didn't on their seats, butI don't do that anymore, but
I've actually seen that happentwice in the same store.
They didn't learn their lessonDifferent drivers.
So those are just some of thosethings like the rules we go
over in class.
Another thing we like to do inclass is talk about what the
do's and don'ts.
Some of the big do's and don'tsis driving in dark areas
(12:59):
without your headlights on.
Most new forklifts have low-reslights or low-visibility lights
the big, bright blue lights ortheir side view lights that are
bright and red and they reallyhelp, but still turn your
headlights on.
It's really amazing how peopledon't use their headlights on
their forklifts.
So those are some of thosethings.
(13:22):
So let's talk about why we needto get trained and who gets
trained.
Mostly the why we should gettrained.
So when we say that I want tobring up a story, I'm going to
put Jenny on the spot here andbring up our in-house forklift
training day.
Jenny (13:40):
Oh, my gosh, that was so much fun.
Jimmy (13:42):
I need to go find some of those videos so that I can
share them with everybody on oursocials because we had so much
fun yeah, so tell everybody, whywe did a in-house Female-only
forklift training day.
Jenny (14:00):
I think we were just all interested and we wanted to
learn how, and we just, you know, thought that it would be good
to learn and good to know.
But I don't think I've everdriven the forklift.
I haven't needed to since thenand I don't.
I wouldn't feel comfortabledoing it now because I wouldn't
know what to check or look at oranything.
So and it was so long ago, I'mno longer certified yeah, doing
(14:21):
it now because I wouldn't knowwhat to check or look at or
anything, and it was so long agoI'm no longer certified.
Yeah, so just so everybody knows, your certification lasts for
three years and it's definitelybeen longer than three years for
Jenny, oh yeah definitely, butwe need to do another one
because we have some other folkshere that would be good to get
trained now.
Yes, Just for the experience oftraining and driving.
Jimmy (14:42):
Yeah, so at Life Safety we obviously do some disaster
stuff and we had pellets ofwater showing up and some other
pellets of disaster suppliesthat needed to be unloaded from
a truck and the truck driver gotsuper angry.
Do you remember this?
That one driver who wouldn'tuse his lift gate?
Jenny (15:03):
Yes, yes, that's right, I did.
I forgot about that.
Jimmy (15:07):
Yeah, that's kind of how it started.
Jenny (15:08):
Huh, yeah, we needed to be able to know how to do it,
just in case.
Jimmy (15:11):
Yeah, and the guy would throw a fit and then try to
charge us for using his liftgate and all these things.
It was a hassle and every timeyou showed up it was jenny or
some of our other office staffthat just at the time happened
to be females and it wasn't abig deal it's not a thing, but
it was like it just happened tobe that way, because all the
(15:32):
instructors and everybody knewhow to drive the forklift were
never here well then we made itthink because we were like, yeah
, we're gonna be girls drivingforklifts, we're badass, let's
do this right got everyone to doit, even if they didn't need to
know yeah.
So they scheduled me a forkliftclass that day.
So I actually had to come backand teach everybody how to try
(15:52):
forklifts and it was really funit was.
It was not a bad thing, it wasa lot of fun.
But you know, it's just one ofthose things that, like, who
gets trained right?
So in your offices and yourworkplaces of work, anybody that
drives a forklift on yourproperty has to be trained by
you.
So if you're at life safety, ifwe had a truck driver show up
(16:16):
and was like, oh, I can drive astand-up forklift, I've been
doing it for 20 years, cool,you're not allowed to drive ours
, you have to go through ourtraining.
So you out there as an EHSprofessional, somebody that just
works around a warehouse,something like that, your
company has to come up with away for you to be trained so you
(16:39):
can drive that forklift.
Okay, you can't just letanybody off the street, so to
speak, can drive that forklift.
Okay, you can't just letanybody off the street, so to
speak, drive your forklift.
Jenny (16:46):
What if we have more than one type of forklift or a
pallet jack or scissor lift andstuff like that?
Is it still just the onetraining?
Jimmy (16:55):
If it's scheduled that way, we can make that happen.
But it has to be an electricpallet jack.
You don't have to be trained ona regular pallet jack.
Electric pallet jack and allthe different types of lifts you
have to be trained on too.
So the walk behind pallet jackor the electric walk behind or
the ride on pallet jack or thewalk behind forklift, anything
(17:18):
like that you have to be trainedon anything that's considered a
forklift or a poweredindustrial truck.
You have to be trained onanything that's considered a
forklift or a powered industrialtruck.
You have to be trained on it.
Jenny (17:25):
And again, that certification is for three years
and what if I change jobs andthey have the same forklifts and
the same equipment for the most?
Jimmy (17:35):
part same job or same?
Jenny (17:37):
different companies different companies.
Jimmy (17:39):
Gotta go through their training even I didn't know that
gotta be certified on theirstuff, even if it's apples to
apples comparison.
And what I mean by apples toapples comparison is you have to
have the same make and modelbut it still doesn't matter if
it is the same make and model ata different business nope ocean
(17:59):
very clearly states that youhave to provide training for
your forklifts.
Jenny (18:03):
So it's a business owner's thing right as small
business owners ourselves.
It's a business owner thing,not necessarily the employee
thing.
The business is the one who hasto make sure that their drivers
are trained.
Jimmy (18:18):
Yep, yeah.
How do we know that that persondidn't fake?
You know, buy that thing off ofeBay or something like that or,
you know, print it out Makessense.
Yeah, you got it.
Cya, folks, cya, especiallywith a thing that not only can
hurt you but damage property andlife, all kinds of things.
It's super important.
So if you have any forklifttraining needs and you know you
(18:44):
didn't know us, that's all good.
Now you know that life safetydoes that.
Uh, so reach out email atlifesafetycom and tell me.
Jenny (18:48):
Tell me, jimmy sent you because he won't be answering
the phones, definitely notdefinitely not.
Jimmy (18:56):
Thanks a lot, folks.
Um, we'll catch you next time.
Peace.
What's happening?
It's your boy, jimmy, withanother life and safety podcast.
Today we got Queen Bee Jennyhanging out with us.
Today, the boss lady, aka theoff-duty coordinator, aka mom.
Jenny (00:17):
We're all pretty badass here.
Jimmy (00:19):
Yeah, all the life safety .
Jenny (00:20):
Ladies, we got to keep up with you guys.
Jimmy (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Something like that, somethinglike that, all right team.
So today we're going to talkabout something that not a lot
of people know that we do hereat Life Safety, and that's
forklift training.
Yep, forklift training and itkind of came to fruition years
(00:43):
ago with the original ownersthat there was a need for people
to need forklift training, andsince life safety was already in
their system, it just madesense for us to start doing it.
So, with that being said, whydo we need to have forklift
(01:05):
training, right?
Well, forklift hurt more peoplethan most accidents in the
workplace.
It's one of the most commonthings, it's always in the top
10 OSHA violations and it's verycostly.
(01:29):
Not only is it it money costly,but it's time person costly.
If somebody gets hurt, they'regoing to be out for a while and
the crazy thing is, when peopleget hurt on forklifts, it's
usually because they've gotthey're on a ladder and they get
hit.
Some people running people withladders.
Jenny (01:44):
That sounds so sketchy.
Jimmy (01:46):
Isn't that wild, yeah yeah.
And another old school one.
It doesn't happen much anymore,but this comes up in our class
quite a bit because we go overthe posted rules and there's X
amount of rules that you have tokind of go over and understand
before you can drive a forklift,amount of rules that you have
to kind of go over andunderstand before you can drive
(02:07):
a forklift, and it's basicallythe safety rules poster that
everybody's supposed to haveposted with their forklift.
And just FYI, that's one of themost common violations.
When OSHA walks through They'llsay something like hey, jenny,
I see you on this forklift,where's your forklift rules and
things posted at.
And Jenny's supposed to know.
Jenny (02:28):
So people don't have literally the poster posted yeah
.
That's like the easiest thingto do, right, yeah.
Jimmy (02:36):
And so we actually kind of go over that and we actually
give them the paper copy of therules so they can then put them
on the forklift.
At least they're not posted,but at least they're there,
they're accessible.
And then you know hopefullythat's a memory jogger to do
those things right later, not tocatch somebody or to in between
(03:03):
the forks, or to back up andpinch somebody or try to impede
their walk with a forklift,because you'll squish them Right
.
These things weigh lots andthey're huge.
They weigh lots and lots ofweight.
Jenny (03:18):
Don't try and like cut in front of somebody.
Exactly or like sneak in frontof them them so they can't walk
down the aisle exactly I feellike that's the same as like
with a car.
Jimmy (03:30):
That's not very safe right, or imagine me trying to
walk up and like catch you inbetween the four o'clock so I
can talk to you yeah, I thinkI'd be a little scared right.
Well, that's actually where therule comes from.
The rule actually came fromwhen women enter the workforce
and, for whatever reason,they're in the workforce.
(03:52):
The guys in the warehouses andstuff like that were trying to
talk to them and they would tryto pull up to them and be like,
hey, girl what's up?
Jenny (04:00):
What's up?
So you're harassing me andyou're trapping me between
forklifts.
Jimmy (04:03):
Yes, no.
Jenny (04:07):
That's wild, Wild, old school outdated thing right.
Jimmy (04:12):
So we actually have a forklift training VHS tape
that's a gazillion years old andit actually has a segment in
there and it's like jane'shusband died in vietnam.
She needed to start working.
(04:33):
Joe likes jane and he's gonnaask her out to dinner and pulls
up to her in the forklift withthe forks up and actually like
hits her in the face and it'slike doesn't look like joe's
gonna get his date tonight, kindof a thing that's horrible,
like you're pulling out, likethe big giant tv with bunny ears
(04:54):
on the rolling platform yesin elementary school old school
to show that yeah yeah, with thev, with the VHS tape.
Times have changed, thankgoodness.
Right, so super random.
So that's one of those weirdrules that we have to go over
and we just talk about and Ialways tell people those rules
(05:15):
are written in blood becausesomebody's been hurt or
somebody's done something toinitiate that rule Right.
That rule right.
One of the rules on there isyou can't drive and, while
you're in motion, stick yourhands outside of the running
lines, so you can't stick yourhands outside of the forklift.
Jenny (05:33):
so it's like sticking your hands outside the uh, the
roller coaster yeah, exactlyyour manos de los pies yes.
Jimmy (05:41):
So what happens?
If you stick your hands outsidethe the forklift and you're
driving next to a big rack ofpallets and stuff on it?
You get your arm stuck.
So that's a big one.
That's another violation.
Actually, people hit racks andstuff like that and there's
videos all over youtube if youwant to see those kind of things
(06:03):
.
Now, another fun rule that Ialways like talking about is
when people lift their legsthings and they put them on
shelving and then I actuallycall it.
I probably couldn't, shouldn't,call it to say this name of the
store I always referenceprobably not no, but it's a big
(06:26):
construction box store entereither one of them and every
time I'm in there there's alwayssomebody like you know, have
something up on the thing andthey're telling the other
co-worker just grab that rightthere.
And they stick their handunderneath the forks or next to
the chain, the mast of itlifting and moving and that kind
of stuff.
It's just super sketch, sodon't do that.
(06:49):
Now, another big violation isthe pre-flight inspection.
Is the pre-flight inspection?
So OSHA states that you have todo an inspection every eight
hours.
Okay, and if anything's wrongwith it safety-wise, you have to
(07:12):
take it out of commission.
So that's always a contentiouspoint when I go to new clients,
especially because that's one ofthe things that in the poster
the two easiest things nobodyever does.
Jenny (07:31):
How do you track that?
Are you?
Is there like a list?
Is it a checklist?
Is it changing shifts?
How do you track?
Jimmy (07:39):
how many hours is it?
A lot of people do itdifferently.
The most common is there's abook on the forklift with a
checklist in it and it just hasthe date and the time it was
done.
And that's cool, as long aseverybody looks at it and makes
sure it was done, all good.
Highly recommend you look at itand make sure it was done, all
good.
Highly recommend you look at itand you do it mentally.
Or, if you want to do your walkaround portion of it, check it,
(08:02):
make sure like there's no paint, scratch or dents, anything
like that, because if there issomebody hit something right and
if you're the last one on it,you're going to get blamed for
it, so always c with that.
A lot of clients are going to QRcodes, so they're making
stickers and they're puttingthem on there and they're going
to a sheet that you can fill out.
(08:23):
That's cool yeah, it's reallycool and obviously reduces paper
things like that.
But what it really does is itmakes the person that's on it
have to do the checklist yes,because you can't see the
history exactly right.
So it works really good.
It works really good, so Ireally like that.
(08:44):
Um the some of the employeestakes a little hard to get used
to, right, like with any kind ofchange.
It's hard but it's a good thing.
Um now kind of a story I givewhen people are tilting and
loading forklifts the pallets onthe lifts is my son and I two
(09:08):
different times we actually wentto one of those big
construction um still box storesand we saw twice a pallet of
toilets get knocked off the back.
Do you remember us coming homeand telling you this?
Jenny (09:22):
I don't.
I feel like I should, but Idon't that's all good to
remember, but you know thatsounds like it would be
interesting to see it was veryinteresting.
Jimmy (09:31):
But team to be fair, I tell jenny lots of stories and I
and I talk too much at homesometimes.
So Jenny, really—.
Jenny (09:40):
There are so many stories I cannot remember them all.
But on the bright side,sometimes they feel new again.
Jimmy (09:46):
Thank you for bailing me out.
I would say so.
Sometimes.
She just shuts me out andthat's all good, I get it.
Jenny (09:51):
I mean, it depends on the day and my story and tolerance.
Fair enough.
Jimmy (09:57):
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Yeah, this podcast was youridea.
No, I'm teasing, it was Thanksfor playing along.
Jenny (10:06):
Oh good, so the toilets.
Jimmy (10:09):
Yeah, so persons, I was going to get there.
I like to weave my storiesTelling my business woman.
So we're there and I think ourson, jamison, was 12 or 13.
So this was some time ago.
I was watching the forklift guybecause he looked very unsteady
(10:30):
and the way he was moving themast the mast is the part that
tilts the forks up back andforth and makes it go up and
down, so a big deal.
And I was watching him and Iwas like that doesn't look right
.
This will be interesting.
And he loads it, gets the palletto the very highest rack and
(10:51):
starts driving in and I go well,okay, I see what you're doing
there.
Good, so far, so good.
And he takes the pallet and hestarts pushing the back pallet
away from him.
So there's two racks, there's apallet on the other side, a
(11:12):
pallet in the middle and thepallet he's putting on and he's
making room by pushing thepallet that's in the middle
towards the other side of theaisle.
And I said that's gonna falloff and, jameson's, what are you
talking about?
I said, watch, let's back up alittle bit, because that's gonna
be a lot of stuff lying.
And he's like what do you mean?
I said look at that top box upthere.
(11:33):
It's all those toilets they'regonna fall off the top and 30
seconds later toilet avalancheand a pallet of toilets and
porcelain.
It just goes flying everywherethat's dangerous right
especially in a store like that,with people everywhere.
Like that can't be good no, andthey didn't have the other aisle
(11:56):
blocked off so therepotentially could have been
people there.
We're only maybe 30 feet away,so we definitely had some
porcelain shrapnel come and hitus and you know, my son being
our son goes.
That was awesome and I was likeit was kind of awesome and I
(12:17):
was like hold on, son, and Iactually walked over and I put
my business card, life safetycard on the seat so they never
call.
And every time I'm in one ofthose stores not every time for
a long time there I actuallyused to put my card on their
seats, but I don't do thatanymore.
But I've actually seen thathappen twice in the same store.
(12:38):
They didn't on their seats, butI don't do that anymore, but
I've actually seen that happentwice in the same store.
They didn't learn their lessonDifferent drivers.
So those are just some of thosethings like the rules we go
over in class.
Another thing we like to do inclass is talk about what the
do's and don'ts.
Some of the big do's and don'tsis driving in dark areas
(12:59):
without your headlights on.
Most new forklifts have low-reslights or low-visibility lights
the big, bright blue lights ortheir side view lights that are
bright and red and they reallyhelp, but still turn your
headlights on.
It's really amazing how peopledon't use their headlights on
their forklifts.
So those are some of thosethings.
(13:22):
So let's talk about why we needto get trained and who gets
trained.
Mostly the why we should gettrained.
So when we say that I want tobring up a story, I'm going to
put Jenny on the spot here andbring up our in-house forklift
training day.
Jenny (13:40):
Oh, my gosh, that was so much fun.
Jimmy (13:42):
I need to go find some of those videos so that I can
share them with everybody on oursocials because we had so much
fun yeah, so tell everybody, whywe did a in-house Female-only
forklift training day.
Jenny (14:00):
I think we were just all interested and we wanted to
learn how, and we just, you know, thought that it would be good
to learn and good to know.
But I don't think I've everdriven the forklift.
I haven't needed to since thenand I don't.
I wouldn't feel comfortabledoing it now because I wouldn't
know what to check or look at oranything.
So and it was so long ago, I'mno longer certified yeah, doing
(14:21):
it now because I wouldn't knowwhat to check or look at or
anything, and it was so long agoI'm no longer certified.
Yeah, so just so everybody knows, your certification lasts for
three years and it's definitelybeen longer than three years for
Jenny, oh yeah definitely, butwe need to do another one
because we have some other folkshere that would be good to get
trained now.
Yes, Just for the experience oftraining and driving.
Jimmy (14:42):
Yeah, so at Life Safety we obviously do some disaster
stuff and we had pellets ofwater showing up and some other
pellets of disaster suppliesthat needed to be unloaded from
a truck and the truck driver gotsuper angry.
Do you remember this?
That one driver who wouldn'tuse his lift gate?
Jenny (15:03):
Yes, yes, that's right, I did.
I forgot about that.
Jimmy (15:07):
Yeah, that's kind of how it started.
Jenny (15:08):
Huh, yeah, we needed to be able to know how to do it,
just in case.
Jimmy (15:11):
Yeah, and the guy would throw a fit and then try to
charge us for using his liftgate and all these things.
It was a hassle and every timeyou showed up it was jenny or
some of our other office staffthat just at the time happened
to be females and it wasn't abig deal it's not a thing, but
it was like it just happened tobe that way, because all the
(15:32):
instructors and everybody knewhow to drive the forklift were
never here well then we made itthink because we were like, yeah
, we're gonna be girls drivingforklifts, we're badass, let's
do this right got everyone to doit, even if they didn't need to
know yeah.
So they scheduled me a forkliftclass that day.
So I actually had to come backand teach everybody how to try
(15:52):
forklifts and it was really funit was.
It was not a bad thing, it wasa lot of fun.
But you know, it's just one ofthose things that, like, who
gets trained right?
So in your offices and yourworkplaces of work, anybody that
drives a forklift on yourproperty has to be trained by
you.
So if you're at life safety, ifwe had a truck driver show up
(16:16):
and was like, oh, I can drive astand-up forklift, I've been
doing it for 20 years, cool,you're not allowed to drive ours
, you have to go through ourtraining.
So you out there as an EHSprofessional, somebody that just
works around a warehouse,something like that, your
company has to come up with away for you to be trained so you
(16:39):
can drive that forklift.
Okay, you can't just letanybody off the street, so to
speak, can drive that forklift.
Okay, you can't just letanybody off the street, so to
speak, drive your forklift.
Jenny (16:46):
What if we have more than one type of forklift or a
pallet jack or scissor lift andstuff like that?
Is it still just the onetraining?
Jimmy (16:55):
If it's scheduled that way, we can make that happen.
But it has to be an electricpallet jack.
You don't have to be trained ona regular pallet jack.
Electric pallet jack and allthe different types of lifts you
have to be trained on too.
So the walk behind pallet jackor the electric walk behind or
the ride on pallet jack or thewalk behind forklift, anything
(17:18):
like that you have to be trainedon anything that's considered a
forklift or a poweredindustrial truck.
You have to be trained onanything that's considered a
forklift or a powered industrialtruck.
You have to be trained on it.
Jenny (17:25):
And again, that certification is for three years
and what if I change jobs andthey have the same forklifts and
the same equipment for the most?
Jimmy (17:35):
part same job or same?
Jenny (17:37):
different companies different companies.
Jimmy (17:39):
Gotta go through their training even I didn't know that
gotta be certified on theirstuff, even if it's apples to
apples comparison.
And what I mean by apples toapples comparison is you have to
have the same make and modelbut it still doesn't matter if
it is the same make and model ata different business nope ocean
(17:59):
very clearly states that youhave to provide training for
your forklifts.
Jenny (18:03):
So it's a business owner's thing right as small
business owners ourselves.
It's a business owner thing,not necessarily the employee
thing.
The business is the one who hasto make sure that their drivers
are trained.
Jimmy (18:18):
Yep, yeah.
How do we know that that persondidn't fake?
You know, buy that thing off ofeBay or something like that or,
you know, print it out Makessense.
Yeah, you got it.
Cya, folks, cya, especiallywith a thing that not only can
hurt you but damage property andlife, all kinds of things.
It's super important.
So if you have any forklifttraining needs and you know you
(18:44):
didn't know us, that's all good.
Now you know that life safetydoes that.
Uh, so reach out email atlifesafetycom and tell me.
Jenny (18:48):
Tell me, jimmy sent you because he won't be answering
the phones, definitely notdefinitely not.
Jimmy (18:56):
Thanks a lot, folks.
Um, we'll catch you next time.
Peace.
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