One of the primary objectives of National Forklift Safety Day (NFSD) was to raise awareness for the continued need for operator training. This was highlighted during the event by Doug Kalinowski, Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA), Directorate of Cooperative & State Programs as well as Brian Butler, ITA Chairman, (President & CEO of Linde North America) during their presentations on June 10.

There were numerous articles and mentions of National Forklift Safety Day including those from our official media sponsor Penton media in Material Handling & Logistics (MH&L) and Environment Health & Safety Today (EH&S Today). To date, approximately 135 media channels (including Newsday, The Miami Herald, etc.) in online and print editions have mentioned National Forklift Safety Day. These circulation numbers mentioning NFSD exceed 10 million.

A secondary objective of this event was to educate policymakers on the ITA’s position regarding free and fair trade policies being debated in Congress. Attendees heard from Everett Eissenstat, Chief International Trade Counsel to the Ranking Member of the US Senate Finance Committee on how these policies could impact US trade. ITA members met with over 35 Congressional Members (both Senate & House of Representatives) to demonstrate our industry’s support for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade policies.

These meetings also served as the foundation for building a relationship with our elected officials and have already resulted in the exchange of information regarding certain tariff rates as well as scheduling factory tours for congressional representatives.