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Safe, Efficient, Profitable: A Worker Safety Podcast
Joe and Jen Allen of Allen Safety LLC take their combined 40+ years of worker safety, OSHA, EPA, production, sanitation, and engineering experience in Manufacturing Plants including Harvest Plants/Packers, Case Readies and Further Processing Plants, Food Production Plants, Feed Mills, Grain Elevators, Bakeries, Farms, Feed Lots, and Petro-Chemical and bring you their top methods for identifying risk, preventing injuries, conquering the workload, auditing, managing emergencies and catastrophic events, and working through OSHA citations. They're breaking down real safety opportunities, safety citations, and emergency situations from real locations, and discussing realistic solutions that can actually be implement based on their personal experiences spending 40+ weeks in the field every year since 2001. Joe and Jen are using all of that experience to provide a fresh outlook on worker safety by providing honest, (no sponsors here!) and straight forward, easy to understand safety coaching with actionable guidance to move your safety program forward in a way that provides tangible results.
Safe, Efficient, Profitable: A Worker Safety Podcast
Episode #24: Navigating Real-World Challenges in PIT Safety & Operation
Are your powered industrial truck operators well-trained and confident in their abilities? In this episode we explore the importance of thorough training that goes beyond perfect world scenarios. We share valuable insights on assessing comfort levels with the equipment and offer suggestions for evaluating operators during training in real-world situations, such as production areas, boneyards, and locations with foot traffic. Tune in as we discuss common risks associated with operating PITs, like property damage, near misses, and risk to your ammonia.
But we don't stop there - we stress that operators need to be comfortable with the equipment and able to think critically about safety precautions. Pre-checks should include variables like wear and tear, load security, and when to remove from service. Plus, we highlight the importance of traffic control measures to ensure everyone's safety. Don't miss this essential conversation packed with expert advice on powered industrial truck safety.
A listener. Note the safety information discussed in this podcast are our views based on our personal first-hand experiences. Each safety situation presents unique risks and the solutions discussed in this podcast should not take the place if there are risk assessments or evaluations based on your specific circumstances. Thank you, welcome to Safe, efficient, profitable a Worker Safety podcast where we break down real problems from real situations and discuss realistic solutions. And here's your host. Owner of Allen Safety LLC and CHMM Joe Allen.
Speaker 2:Good day. This is Joe and this is about powered industrial trucks. Now, the first time I ever, ever, ever got to be involved with these is not when I was in the military, it's when I became on the civilian side And two people were driving a forklift towards each other and playing chicken, and neither one of them swerved. And that's the first time I was exposed to the powered industrial truck world. I was like, well, this is different, this is interesting. So we're going to talk a little bit about powered industrial trucks today. There's been a lot of events throughout the history. I've worked a lot of events And what we're going to talk about is just some of the one-offs, like we have in the other episodes. So, as you go through this, think about the randoms. Don't get caught up in how you drive a powered industrial truck. Think about randoms Like maybe the person driving the powered industrial truck has never really drove any vehicle before, or maybe they don't have a license and maybe their skills test should have been a skills test and not just a program. Answer something online and do a quick drive. So that's some of the words that you find out afterwards after an event or after someone's hit something. So what we're going to do is we'll talk about the program first. Not much on that because everybody has one, but have in there exactly what your training should be. Should it be concept, design, a course up down around a corner, lifting product? whatever it should be? have a good training.
Speaker 2:To me, training on the powered industrial truck is probably the most important thing, because there's so many people that are walking around but there's so many structures around what people are driving PITs, and it seems like the longer you drive a PIT, the faster you try to go or you try to do random things. Like we've seen people drive PITs or stand up lifts and they'll try to be texting while they're driving on the PIT, which is kind of off And we're like, okay, so maybe you don't have your phone out while you're doing that. And then, when it comes to somebody driving a lift, when I do training I like because I don't do a lot of forklift training I spend more of my time evaluating if the doing process is right, if it makes sense. So what I'm looking for is does the person show comfort level? Do they show that when they use the forks and drive, it's comfort level That whenever they pick up the pallet and they tilt it the right way, is it comfort level? That's more important than anything else. It's not about their driving skills, it's about how comfortable they are on how their body moves in that unit And we talked about that a lot in these episodes about end user and how the person reacts to the surroundings. I also don't like when they do the training, where they only do perfect world scenario.
Speaker 2:What I like to do is have they're going to do training, set up everything. Basically, if you could take them to the production area on a Saturday or Sunday when everything's torn apart and you say, all right, this is the obstacle, you got to move in and figure out how to do it today and watch them work in that, because I think they're going to get more out of that than they are. A parking lot with some cones and you go, drive around a little bit and say, yes, i'm qualified, make them do stuff. That's hard If you're going to do a parking lot. Go to the boneyard and go to the back of the boneyard of the plant where they've got a whole bunch of extra equipment, extra storage, extra pallet storage or cars or whatever it is out there, and make them do stuff out there and see how they drive, because you're going to have people drive in different environments and one of his traffic. So if people are walking by and they're foot traffic, they'll look at where these people go and how they're moving and how much they pay attention. So that's why I look at the training side. I look at make them do it like they would do it for real, do a job task as a person, physically doing it for the end result of not striking or hitting anything while they're doing that particular task.
Speaker 2:Now, some of the weirds I look at is the NH3 or the property damage or the struck by items, and what that is is that I will spend time watching people drive the lift and see where the range is or the height or where the lifts going. I look for that because you will have people that do a particular task all week long And then on Friday afternoon at the end of the week, they'll go move a bunch of pallets in their particular rack system for storage And when they do that they'll hit something that they would never thought of. They'll hit a moneer pipe or they'll damage another pallet, or they will not pay attention and they're backing up real quick and they'll run into a rail supporting another piece of structure. It's end of the day, they're tired, it's the end of the week, they're ready to go. It's final product. And it sounds kind of weird, but I spent a lot of time on the worst part of their week, worst part of their day, when I think they're the most, not really paying attention because I'm trying to manage that risk.
Speaker 2:So do I put up a barricade, a block out the aisle? Do we block off different areas where people can't put pallets? Do we guard a piping system a little better, whatever it is gas, ammonia, steam lines or whatever it is? Do we have certain people that when they're tired on a Friday and it's the end of the week, they don't do certain tasks? Maybe we say their task during the rest of the week is fine, but on Friday it ends at two o'clock, they don't do this no more. And someone else comes in who's a little more fresh and they're the ones that do the stuff. That would be a little more critical on how they would put up a pallet or a little more areas of risk they could do. So I move people around, i will move the forklifts around, i'll move the product around, anything I can do to reduce that risk. But I want to evaluate it at the end in the worst case or whatever that is. So I'll ask a lot of questions about that Now, another thing I look at when it comes to injuries.
Speaker 2:There's all kinds of stuff aligned about how injuries are an investigation, forklift. I spend my time on how would the injury occur if the person was walking by the lift. So if they're walking behind it, on the side, in front, wherever that is, including me walking by them, i spend most of my time on could that lift cause harm to me in some manner? Do I need to change the route that I'm walking? Do I need to put up a barricade? Maybe it's the time of day that the lifts go there from two to three where no one's walking through there and people are allowed to walk from 12 to one. I work in a setting where they go hot and cold, so maybe when they're doing hot and cold product where they go into one room or another, they may have glasses or they may have some fogging and they may have issues of seeing for a few feet. I'm going to recognize those environment changes also, so I'm looking because that could affect me walking by there while I'm doing nothing wrong, but they can't see as well, cause it's fogged up And what can I do to manage that or mitigate that So there's not as much harm to it?
Speaker 2:And then the people who were playing the chicken at the beginning of this episode who ran into each other. I had never thought about the event side of it of how we're going to Secure the two lifts that have been damaged. They can still be on. Is the person that hit with the left on the right, bent the steering wheel with the one on the left with seat belted in? but it really wasn't maybe the tightest or maybe it didn't pull them enough and could they have some injuries. So even though instant investigations we talk about going and looking at a scene on the PIT side I'm looking more the structure around the can also be damaged. They hit something else. Is the pallet still on the forklift? is the product that when they hit each other unstable? now that we walk over there, the product could come off the lift and fall and hurt somebody else and even though we're trying to good will, we can get injured doing that. So that's kind of what I'm looking at with the injury side of it and with the in the use.
Speaker 2:Nothing I look for is. I look for wear and tear and the routine changeover. So what that means is is the fort thin in the wrong place? are the? what is the word? Hires, good condition? what is the word slightly damaged or damaged? if I'm doing a pre check form, i want to make sure that form is as clear as I can make it So that when someone checks, yes, they're safe and no, they are not. And or no, this line means take it out service. That they understand, take it out of service.
Speaker 2:Now there's people who like doing the pre checks during the shift. I personally like having the project on beginning the shift and the reason I do is because they're on it now. If they do the pre check in 30 minutes, then it's kind of like they're driving a piece of equipment that Not really sure what's working right or not, and I've had people have breaks, fell. I've had people with lighting didn't work right and discover 15 to 30 minutes later if they're already and using the piece of equipment and I'm walking by them. I don't want to run over me or hitting me or striking me because of a break issue I say that we're run over. It could be like go over people's feet. I've seen that where someone's walking through an area in the break is imperfect, the guy gal didn't turn the steering wheel right and then the the wheel goes over someone's boot. Well, they can have still to boots but still may not protect from that.
Speaker 2:Some look at different variables. Nothing I look at is the job the, the lifts gonna be doing that. Other control variables to cause harm. So, for example, a forklift is going to load a trailer. They're gonna load a trailer. Is the trailer secure enough? is there like some type of lock system up front that manages it? does the trailer, if it can have the glad lock, what's it gonna have instead of extra cones or extra chocks? Is the trailer lit enough inside, or the light busted on the trailer they can't see in, or the loading dock area? or is the forklift light broken so I could use the forklift in the morning and I don't need the front lights? let me check, it's okay. I use the forklift later in the day and I'm loading a trailer and I have no lighting in there. Well, now it's not okay. So it's also about knowing where those hazards are and how we're gonna adapt to it.
Speaker 2:I spent a lot of time on in result in use person doing a task. What are the houses they can expect? how we mitigate all we can because I want them to do their job. I give an example a person is supposed to move how it one in front of them and go to the left and move it there and go blue palette to and then move it to the left. We want them to stay focused on the actions that they're doing. So we'll do a lot of times Is we will look at the surrounding area foot traffic, car traffic, whatever could be around that person why they're staying focused on task and maybe put up some bear tape Or maybe block off an area by some mechanism or means to sell people. Hey, during this time let's try to keep a few people out of here.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying you have to do that. I'm not saying there's not other ways to manage it. I just look for ways that work for that area. Sometimes you can block off an area. Sometimes you can't because of other truck traffic. Maybe change the time of day or maybe you change you have a spotter outside. There's different things to think of when you're moving product from point A to point B Is you want the people doing the task stay focused. That's why I look at it that way.
Speaker 2:And then the last things I look at is only injury side. I've had some pretty significant events in my career where people were injured driving a lift and as they get injured, all I've encouraged you to do is is pay attention to your training when you do instant investigation and pay attention to your training on your medical response. There's a lot of people I see where they have first day CPR training. Someone's injured on a forklift. They've bent the steering wheel. They're leaning forward. People want to go and move that person back and do an assessment on them. I always encourage people to leave them where they are. Let your medical professionals, your nurses, medics, fire, ambulance come on site, manage them in the position they are. Yes, you want to check their pulse, fine. Yes, you want to see if their breathing is fine, but try not to move them a lot because you don't know how stable or unstable their body is at that moment and you want to control the scene and manage the area. I also want them to kind of keep all the other traffic away, don't let anybody else bother them, and we'll talk about instant investigations in later episodes.
Speaker 2:But just because there's a forklift, sometimes people associate instant investigations like somebody getting hurt on a piece of equipment. I look at it more like with the lift there's other things that could be in motion. Like we said earlier, it could be the load or the forks aren't right and they've bent or broke and there's other things that come. Or a trainer was pulled out and it was able to be pulled out and the forklift came out of it and rolled and there's videos like that people seen online and stuff. But the biggest thing is the scene. Stabilization at that moment is my biggest thing. Most managers in my career deal with events that are a cut or slip, trip and fall or something like that. But when a forklift is involved and has a roll bar or cage or has the seat belts and everything in place, those people will be in different positions than most people aren't used to And I spend a little more time on the scene stabilization for that. So, yes, it's not really forklift training, but I do spend more time on how do you control the scene if it's an event like that, more than just a regular injury If you're going to do instant investigations. So let's something else to look at forklift.
Speaker 2:And then the last part I want to close with here is that everybody loves the automatic system where you take your ID and you scan it and you say, all right, it does all the pre checks and you go one, two, three, five and you hit the pre checks and you take off. Just watch for the random stuff. And one of the randoms is if it says the forks and operation or if the brakes work. Just don't get caught up in the weird stuff. And one of the weird is that you know, people tell me all the time we don't ever drive this lift unless you've done the inspection. I said I don't disagree, but I know you have to move it to do the inspection, because you got to check the lift and you got to check how everything's going to work up and down and right and left And you got to check the brakes, which means you got to drive a little bit. So watch for that, watch for those little things that how far can you drive it and what can you do before you have to do the pre check, because you'll do it for the inspection And there's also some devices will have different overrides or different systems.
Speaker 2:But go back and check your automated system with your FOB or your ID that turns it on and try to find out. If somebody does have damage, like we said from the investigation, and they are hurt in the lift and they've ran into something, can you move that lift without resigning in and just ask random questions like that? because we've had some of the manufacturers will scan in but you can drive them so many feet at a certain miles per hour before you have to actually be logged in. And that's because if somebody has some damage or harm you have to be able to move the equipment from to just think about that, ask about it and work on some of the details. So that's kind of where I'm at today.
Speaker 2:Just a couple of highlights. Like I said, we're doing different episodes every week and we'll be even PITs or elevated work or any of these items we've covered. We're going to have other parts to those subjects as the year goes. We just try to give you a few minutes each week to think a little differently and think of one offs And then, as we go through the year, i've got a list of a bunch of stuff and we're just kind of doing as many as we can. Sometimes we have the call in so people ask questions and I'll try to address that. But the goal of these is to give you a little bit each time, help for your drive or make you think of something different and kind of change up your day. So that's all I have for today. Thank you again for listening. Thank you again for your time. Bye-bye, safety first, stay safe.
