Crown Equipment Challenges Individuals to Embrace Forklift Safety

Crown Equipment Corp., one of the world’s largest material handling companies, is celebrating National Forklift Safety Day sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) with a challenge. The company’s campaign this year, “Safety: It’s Up To You,” emphasizes the role each individual – regardless of role – has in promoting a safety-based culture.

For more than 60 years, the ITA has been the leading organization of industrial truck manufacturers and suppliers of component parts and accessories that conduct business in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Based in Washington, D.C., ITA maintains an influential voice in international standards development for the industry. The organization also advances engineering practices to promote safe products, disseminates statistical marketplace information, and provides industry forums for learning and networking.

One way Crown is activating its forklift safety campaign is by distributing safety posters throughout its locations and to customers as a reminder that safety is everyone’s responsibility. The company also plans to use social media channels to share a short, interactive forklift safety quiz to test knowledge and reinforce key principles.

“A core part of a safety culture is ongoing training at various levels of an organization in order to help minimize the possibility of complacency,” said Ron Grisez, director of product safety, Crown Equipment. “For successful safety programs, it is not just about the quality of the training, but also the accessibility of the training. This is why Crown engages operators, service technicians, trainers, supervisors and even pedestrians in safety initiatives.”

Crown offers training programs with a comprehensive range of forklift training formats, including training for technicians, train-the-operator programs, train-the-supervisor prgrams, train-the-trainer programs and programs designed for pedestrians in the workplace who might interact with forklifts.

Hercules Industries, a manufacturer and wholesale distributor of high-quality sheet metal products and equipment for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry, recently completed a new 100,000 square foot distribution center and used Crown’s Train-the-Trainer program to help them quickly acclimate a new team of operators with their new warehouse environment and an entirely new forklift fleet.

“Going through Crown’s Train-the-Trainer program has provided valuable hands-on experience and enables me to relate one-on-one when operators have issues and collaborate with them to find a solution that works better for the task they are trying to perform.” said Alan Duncan, safety director and superintendent for manufacturing at Hercules’ Denver Branch. “Being able to train our own people inside the company has helped speed up the process and helped ensure we quickly and efficiently have more operators who can be hands-on.”