All over the world, in warehouses, factories, freight terminals and shipping yards and all other industrial sites, companies use forklifts to move, lift and stack loads.
According WITS (World Industrial Truck Statistics), 1,534,000 units were shipped in 2018 and the lift truck market has grown from 872,000 units in 2008 to 1,534,000 (estimated) units in 2018 at a CAGR of 5.4%.
However, this increased use comes with its challenges, in particular with regards to the safety aspect for forklift operators and those working in the vicinity.
RCT’s Industrial Senior Business Development Manager, Grahame Don talks about the importance of reducing the risks in forklift operations and the materials handling industry.
The safety and well-being of forklift operators around the world is of utmost importance. In developed economies like the US and Australia, the human and financial cost of forklift-related incidents for the employees, industry and community is substantial.
According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, forklifts caused 85 work-related deaths and 7,940 nonfatal injuries in 2018. Non-fatal injuries in 2018, were around 16% more than that in 2015.
However, there are precautions and initiatives companies can undertake to prevent these incidents from occurring.
Around the world, Government safety bodies require personnel to obtain a forklift licence before they are authorised to operate lift trucks due to the high-risk nature associated with working with heavy equipment. Today, companies are required to keep a record of employee’s licences, making note of when they need to be renewed. It is however not easy to keep up-to-date with current and expired licences when this information is recorded manually. The use of an industrial fleet management system, like RCT’s SmarTrack® Global, can prevent unauthorised use of forklifts with workers needing a pin code or swipe card to access a machine. SmarTrack® Global can also keep a record of valid licences ensuring everyone operating the machines are legally authorised to do so.
These include the simple task of a pre-operational forklift checklist. Ensure operators check the forklift is in safe, working order before you start. This checklist would typically comprise of checking the likes of tyres, fluids, seating, warning devices, seatbelt, controls and breaks. It is important a system be implemented that is both easy to manage and has longevity. Manual, paper checklists can often become quite tedious and people can become complacent about them. Due to these reasons, many companies are going digital by implementing fleet management solutions to address this safety compliance issue. Currently, SmarTrack® Global is one of the few fleet management systems with a multi-lingual checklist function to ensure operators can nominate their preferred language.
It might sound so simple, but wearing a seatbelt while operating a forklift is the most important safety precaution that operators can take. Seatbelts play a significant role in lessening the chance of serious injury and even death should a roll-over occur.
However, it is quite common for operators to overlook this simple task when operating a forklift for just a few minutes; for example, when they need to move a forklift a short distance to relocate it. These bad habits must be broken, and with a buckle monitoring system that alerts and reports when a seatbelt is not worn, can ensure compliance as they can reinforce safety policy and training at the site. These alert systems are a feature of fleet management systems like SmarTrack® Global.
It is one thing to put in place a speed limit for forklift operators, but it is another to enforce that people abide by it to ensure safety. It is not 100 per cent reliable as there is human error/disobedience. Being able to alert drivers to exceeding the speed limit helps to prevent accidents occurring that are caused from speeding, such as driving into trucks and other equipment, or even rollovers. Speed alerts can create behavioural changes and can be executed with fleet management solutions such as SmarTrack® Global.
A forklift maintenance program should be mandatory in any organisation operating these industrial trucks. Preventative maintenance and inspections should be performed according to the manufacture’s recommendations and relevant standards. This servicing schedule should also adhere to components added to the forklift. In addition, all servicing should be carried out by someone qualified or trained to do so. It is easy to let servicing slide or perhaps forget when it’s due entirely. The use of a service scheduler, via a fleet management solution ensures the person in charge receives a notification when a service is due, based on hours and the calendar year, is extremely beneficial to ensure this important task is not forgotten about and for companies to remain compliant. In addition to this, service personnel are alerted to any checklist maintenance issues promptly.
SmarTrack has the ability through it’s “Out Of Service” feature to enable units to be locked out in the event of an impact. The unit can only be re-activated by the appropriate Manager or Technician. To assist management with the identification of risks within the workplace, SmarTrack® Global includes an area for incident reports. This enables information to be stored electronically.
While the safety and well-being of employees are, the most important reason for ensuring all these rules are abided by at all times, compliance also weighs in heavily. Companies have a duty of care for their staff, especially those operating heavy machines such as forklifts. Digitising the process improves safety exponentially, and ultimately saves organisations money.
Smart technology company RCT is pleased to have committed to a technology partnership with Integra Soluciones to provide cutting-edge products to the Mexican materials handling industry.
The partnership involves RCT supplying products including its new industrial fleet management solution SmarTrack® Global which offers advanced features including Global Reporting from a single platform and multilingual capabilities.
SmarTrack® Global manages machine access and records machine impacts as well as extensive pre-and post-start checklists, weight, seat and seat buckle monitoring and out-of-service alerts.
RCT will also supply its safety products including machine-mounted LED arc lights, heavy duty spot lights and LED smartspot warning lights.
Integra Soluciones will deliver and provide technical support for these technology solutions to materials handling fleets throughout Mexico.
RCT Dealer and Product Management Andrew Sells said he is pleased that Integra Soluciones is working as a dealer for RCT products.
“Integra Soluciones has strong connections with the Mexican industrial market and they have a proud history of providing a high level of technical support to their customers,” he said.
“RCT is very confident that Integra Soluciones is a quality machine dealer and we look forward to working with them to deliver proven technology solutions.”
“We have received feedback that Mexican companies are seeking fleet management tools to better utilise their machine fleets and keep workers safe and SmarTrack® Global will definitely meet this requirement.”
Integra Soluciones spokesperson Patricia Gallardo Sánchez said they are very proud to represent RCT to the Mexican market.
“Since we are a company focused on material handling safety, we are sure that RCT’s devices are an excellent option for our clients,” she said.
“Based on our experience for around 10 years in the Mexican industrial market we are convinced of the excellent quality and effectiveness of SmarTrack® Global since we know and have tried other models and brands of fleet management systems.”
RCT will provide ongoing support to Integra Soluciones from its office in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA.
Smart technology company RCT has finalised a project to deliver its new fleet management solution on a 29-strong equipment fleet for a major Australian energy distributor.
Recently RCT supplied its new fleet management solution SmarTrack® Global to the energy distributor which installed the solution on its fleet of crane borers and elevated work platforms.
The project follows on from earlier work to install SmarTrack® on the company’s mixed forklift fleet.
To date, RCT has supplied SmarTrack® to 29 individual pieces of heavy equipment across multiple machine types with additional units to be delivered in the future.
SmarTrack® Global contains several new features such as Global Reporting which enables managers to monitor the status of every machine across multiple job sites using a single login.
Other features include managing operator access, machine speed, weight, seat and seatbelt monitoring, pre- and post-start checklists and improved out of service functions.
RCT Senior Business Development Manager – Industrial Grahame Don said the fleet management solution integrated seamlessly with their client’s equipment.
“SmarTrack® Global can integrate with any piece of heavy equipment to provide an easy-to-use fleet management solution to companies across the industrial, materials handling, civil and construction industries,” he said.
“Our client needs to operate a very diverse fleet spread across multiple sites and SmarTrack® Global will enable them to manage operator access, equipment inspection processes and utilisation reporting from one single platform on their smartphone.”
As required in the project brief RCT configured SmarTrack® Global to interface with the energy distributor’s existing security cards which are issued to all employees.
A spokesperson for RCT’s client said going forward only staff members who had completed the relevant training programs and received authorisation would be able to operate the equipment.
“By implementing SmarTrack® Global we could ensure that our operators were fully compliant with our policies and regulations which is extremely important,” they said.
“The system allowed us to set email alerts for the expiration of each of our operator’s High Risk Working License so we can now ensure each worker has a valid license at all times.”
“Our operators were quite pleased about not having to complete a paper-based pre-start inspection as well as being able to assess machine readiness prior to operation.”
“SmarTrack® Global has many other functions that we need to explore and we look forward to implementing further efficiencies further down the track.”
RCT will continue to provide the energy distributor with after-sales support.
RCT Senior Business Development Manager – Industrial, Grahame Don provides some helpful advice for managers in the materials handling industry to further optimise their company’s operations.
1. Brand agnostic Fleet Management Systems
Data is becoming an increasingly important tool to enable Managers to make more informed decisions throughout many areas of the workplace. Fleet Management Systems (FMS) assist in providing data in relation to mobile plant – this information is often used to better manage fleet size and maintenance by monitoring utilisation. Other features can assist with compliance, training and safety. Especially, if you have a business that runs a variety of equipment from different suppliers I’d recommend a brand agnostic FMS such as SmarTrack® Global. This will spare the administration of different FMS platforms and the cost of combining data from different FMS that often use different units of measurement.
2. Manage operator access
A common feature of FMS is the ability to control who operates your equipment and which equipment they can operate. Some include the ability to conduct Check Lists and combine with additional features such as Speed Zoning. Ideally, the FMS should be capable of operating on a range of equipment. For example, in a warehouse environment forklifts, order pickers, sweepers and burden carriers ideally could use a common platform. A platform that is capable of being used across multiple sites, even multiple countries regardless of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) brand.
3. Out of Service Reporting
Understanding why your fleet isn’t working can be equally as important as knowing what is working. When considering fleet management products consider systems that enable you to understand your "down time". Is it always the same piece of plant that is experiencing down time? Is the down time planned? Understanding more about this aspect can assist in better planning of maintenance, asset planning and cost management.
4. GPS Zoning
GPS Speed Zoning is a readily available feature which provides a geofencing solution for equipment that requires strict speed control within specific areas of various industrial operations. In conjunction with Speed Limiter devices logistics managers can pre-program specific speed settings for different types of equipment based on any number of unique requirements for operations. For example, counterbalance forklifts can be programmed for a certain slow speed while inside an air freight handling warehouse or in an area where you can expect pedestrians. But if that forklift ventures out onto the tarmac for any reason it can enter a separate zone then operators will have different factors to contend with and have access to higher speeds. This sort of feature is more suitable for more spread out, open sites and is very flexible as managers can alter zone parameters easily.
5. Safety devices
Installing simple pieces of equipment such as safety lighting is a cost-effective way to protect warehouse personnel and meet Occupation Health and Safety rules. Halo zones and ‘SmartSpot’ awareness technology take the form of lighting beams specifically designed to be fitted onto machinery and project a visual caution mark onto the floor of your warehouse. This alerts nearby people and other machine users that a vehicle is approaching and that they should move to a safe area. Safety features like these are becoming an increasingly important part of industrial operations.