About This Course: Program Management, Not an Operator License

This course is for the people who run a powered industrial truck program: managers, supervisors and health, safety and environment (HSE) staff, and the people who train and evaluate forklift operators. It follows the federal standard of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for powered industrial trucks, Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 1910.178 (29 CFR 1910.178).

The course does not teach anyone to drive a forklift. It teaches how to build and run the system around the drivers: who is allowed to operate, what training must contain, how evaluation and certification work, how trucks are examined and maintained, how traffic and loading docks are controlled, and how to measure and audit the whole program.

Why "program" and not "training"

Many organizations treat forklift safety as a one-day class. The standard asks for more. Training is only one part. The rest is the work of managers: deciding which trucks are suitable for which areas, keeping trucks in safe condition, separating trucks from people, controlling trailers at the dock, and checking that all of this still works months later.

A forklift program is the written and practical system that does this work. It has an owner, procedures, records and regular review. When an incident happens, an investigator asks first about the program, not only about the driver.