Ken Van Hook does something many managers hate to do. He talks to OSHA compliance officers. There is a goal in his discussions though and that’s to better educate OSHA about when lift trucks in the field aren’t safe or aren’t being used safely. The problem with many OSHA compliance officers is they have no way of knowing if somebody modified a lift truck or hasn’t maintained it well. Van Hook, president of After-Sales, Inc, Humble, Texas, wants to raise the bar on educating OSHA about the real world in which lift trucks work.

He’s one of four Industrial Truck Association members instrumental in this effort. During this week’s ITA Fall Meetings held in Banff, Canada, they engaged the membership in a series of discussions on how ITA can partner with OSHA to improve compliance and safety. The greatest need in that regard is to help compliance officers understand the real world. They need a checklist of things operators should do to ensure safe operation.

The most commonly missed items include:

improper nameplates,

how an attachment affects the capacity on the nameplate,

checking for functioning handbrakes or a functioning horn,

even the correct procedure for taking a lift truck out of service.

Van Hook notes that OSHA did write a regulation on this last item a few years ago, but it was too generic.

He believes a new checklist and an updated training program will help OSHA compliance officers and users understand what’s important.

“Before, lots of things were missed, such as how to go up and down a ramp, applying the parking brake, what to do when getting off the truck,” Van Hook told Modern. “Now we have a training program that helps them make better decisions. When they do an inspection they can spot things that are serious. We teach them through the walk-around check what the employee should have done before he or she got on a lift truck.”

The problem with older compliance training programs was that a real lift truck wasn’t part of them. With the new training being hammered out by ITA members, students break up into groups around lift trucks.

“We can say ‘This is a backrest extension, this is where the nameplate is, this shows whether the truck has an attachment or not,’” he explains. “Having the product there is really great. Having it at a dealership helps the OSHA compliance officer understand the role of the dealer before the product gets to the customer.”

OSHA has committed to working with ITA on improving compliance officer training. ITA is drafting a checklist and it is helping OSHA update the training on the OSHA website.

“We’re giving them the expertise they need to move a lot faster,” Van Hook says. “That’s the key.”

He also believes lift truck certification will be coming to the U.S. eventually—at least it should. It’s already in Canada. During the Canada Committee meeting, Bill Harrison, president of the suppliers committee and chairman and CEO of Lift Technologies, Inc., , Guelph, Canada, noted that lift trucks are safety certified once a year. Canadian trainers are educated in universities on this, he said, adding that even in countries as small as Bulgaria and Japan mechanics who work on customers’ trucks do safety checks once a year.

Harrison reported to the membership that Canada has 372 licensed lift truck technicians and 70 apprentices. Van Hook adds: “The U.S. doesn’t have anything like that. We leave it up to each individual customer to take the truck out of service.”

There were other discussions about global lift truck issues, including an update on the ISO 3691, the “World Lift Truck Standard,” which is expected to be published late 2008. And with fuel cells grabbing attention around the world as a potential power source, ITA is reviewing what is needed to inform users about using fuel cells as a replacement for batteries. It will eventually take the form of an ITA recommended practice including labeling that includes information on fuel cell center of gravity, dimensions, and weight.

“The battery is part of the calculation for the stability of a lift truck,” says Brett Wood, of Toyota. “We have to get the fuel cell suppliers and the lift truck manufacturers to have the same kind of relationship as the battery manufacturers have with the industry. A fuel cell may have a center of gravity that’s more toward the back or front. The industry has to make sure all these bases are covered and documented properly. ITA is setting up a pretty good process to account for different types of batteries and power sources.”