Forklift license renewal is being done every three years. Keeping your certification up to date is important. OSHA is stricter and will always be protective of the welfare of workers and implementation of their rules and regulations, so keeping your certification renewed is important! You and your company could be heavily fined for not keeping license renewed.
There are some other reasons to have your licensed renewed aside from the three-year standard.
When do you need to have your forklift certification renewed
Who are those forklift drivers who must be retrained? Determining those workers who needed training is the first step to take. Those workers with temporary or part time status and those who have long-term contracts must have their certification renewed under several circumstances. If workers are supplied by some agencies, the forklift training must given to them by the agency, but for workplace-specific training must be provided to them by the principal company.
Here are the classifications when to have forklift training renewed:
As Mandated by OSHA
- OSHA instructs employers that training must be given to forklift drivers at least once every three years to maintain skills and knowledge of the workers and preserve safety and health at the workplace. If you are an individual, then you must prove your competence by taking a recertification if your license is expiring.
- If you have been involved in an accident or in an incident of near miss, mishap, or other minor mistake that could lead to serious one.
- If OSHA cited violation that you are not in compliance after an inspection.
- If worker has been seen driving the forklift in dangerous behavior and he was cited safety violation.
- If there are other related federal regulations obliging workers and employer for compliance.
As Company Rules
- Employers follow OSHA standards and many employers exceed it. Employer may impose safety policy for new hires to take a forklift certification again before commencing to do the actual job.
- If there are new types of fork truck introduce in the workplace. The forklift certification must address the characteristics and functions of it.
- If worker has been assigned to operate other fork truck, he is not familiar about.
- If worker changes employer, then new employer may require you to take recertification by taking internal training.
As Corrective Measure
- If forklift operators found to contribute to the large number of accidents happened in the workplace during a particular period.
- Bad behaviors of forklift drivers.
- If there is change in the setting of the work environment especially when there are more materials (during production full swing) that restrict the movements of the equipment.
Who facilitates license renewal evaluation
A safety trainer who is appointed by the company (may it be in-house or outsider) can conduct the retraining for license renewal.
A more senior member of the fleet who is capable and experienced can also be assigned to give such retraining.
If you are an employer, planning to establish a safety training program, for the whole company, you can definitely save up tons of money if you have forklift training program in place. You can avail this forklift training kits to help you structure your own safety programs.
What subjects should those forklift operators be trained
Find out first the main reason why workers need to renew their certification in order to bring them the required training to bring them to the level of competency. Base the training with the subjects they’re lacking. Some of the topics may include: correction of the bad practice, workplace specific matters, equipment specific subjects, and company safety orientation. The list of subject may go on and on.
However, they are instances, customization of the training is needed to cater for the need, it can improve workers’ skills and knowledge. Example, trainer can eliminate topics of the training if workers have been already oriented about it and adding of other subjects not usually in the normal training.
Training delivery can be in many different format: classroom discussion, self studying, online training, interactive learning, video showing, power point presentation and many other forms. The trainer can use several of these formats.
The length of the training will depend on the severity of violation, intensiveness of the certification, number of workers being trained, and extend of the training course.
What can you expect from the evaluation
The main point of license renewal and recertification is to impart safety. The trainer must convey to all operators safety culture of the workplace. It should not be something that set aside.
During the evaluation, those operators involved or witnessed the accident, made realized the mistakes to prevent the accident from happening again. Making them reminisce the event of accident can definitely correct their mistake. Explaining to them what are the possible serious consequences that could happen. It can impact the way they behave to prevent such recurrence.
Do you really need to get your recertification?
OSHA commanded that it is the obligation of the employers to get their operators certified. OSHA is very stern about it with good reason. There are about a hundred people being killed and thousands more being injured involving forklift operation each passing year.
Having your license renewed not only prove you to be competent driving the forklift truck but you have been advocated to teach safety among your co-workers.
Having recertified also gives you the opportunity to work for a long-term career and could open better opportunity to become a safety trainer of the company.
How can you help your workers to have their license renewed?
The most effective way is employ someone who is competent to become a trainer. You can give him a “Train-the-Trainer” course to enhance his capabilities. When completed, he can educate the rest of the crew using a forklift training kit.
This method not only cost efficient but also effective. You do not need to hire a trainer from outside source, thus it can save you money in the long run. Moreover, the training will be more successful because the training course will become workplace specific and could be tailored to the makes and specifications of the forklift trucks in the workplace. It will diminish incidences of mishaps and near misses, thus preventing machine and property damage.
Safeguard your company and operators by spending a small amount that can literally change your business.
How areOperators Evaluated After the Training
Forklift license renewal or training involves some sort of testing to assess the knowledge acquired by the trainees. A written test can be given, and test score must be higher to what the trainer wants. It is a way to assess that the objectives have been achieved.
There might be some unruly, lazy and inattentive trainees whose performance will never be improved due to their inability to learn or stubbornness. These workers could be given special attention for them to learn or corrective action to make them realized their bad action.
Conclusion
Having your forklift license renewed is good way to determine that your skills are up-to-date and current. It also represents that you are following safety policies of the company. I do not blame you if have committed simple violation, as long as it is not intentional, everybody makes mistake. What’s important is to correct those simple mistakes to avoid serious situation that could lead to fatal and severe consequence.
