Two facts about powered lift trucks have made them a priority for the Ontario Ministry of Labour: their use in thousands of workplaces and their continuing role as a significant cause of serious worker injury and death. A Ministry study, Hazards of Powered Lift Truck Operations in Ontario Workplaces 1990-1995, provides a graphic picture. Between 1990 and 1995, powered lift trucks were involved in 136 critical injuries, affecting 143 persons and resulting in 18 worker deaths. A common feature of many of these incidents was a failure to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act) and its regulations.

The OHS Act places a general duty on employers to "take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker" and assigns more specific responsibilities for equipment maintenance, training and supervision. Requirements for powered lift trucks, although they are not mentioned specifically, can be found in the sector regulations made under the OHS Act. While meeting these requirements should have prevented most, if not all, of the accidents, compliance was in fact rare. This may be the result of the difficulty that many employers find in applying general requirements of the legislation to particular situations in their workplaces. As a remedy, the Ministry therefore decided to develop guidelines that would explain how users of powered lift trucks could comply with the legislation.

In January 1997, the Guideline for the Safe Operation of Powered Lift Trucks was published. It had two parts. One part outlined the main elements to be included in an effective powered lift truck safety program; the second part described the knowledge and skills required by a worker in order to be a "competent" operator of a powered lift truck. In 1998, the Ministry released for comment a draft of a second guideline: Guideline for the Maintenance of Powered Lift Trucks. It gave employers, workers, manufacturers and maintenance contractors straightforward advice on what the Ministry expects to be done to ensure that powered lift trucks are maintained in a safe condition and in compliance with regulatory requirements. For convenience these two guidelines have been combined as the Guideline for the Safe Operation and Maintenance of Powered Lift Trucks. This Guideline replaces the Ministry's Engineering Data Sheet No. 8-07, on fork lift trucks

Powered lift trucks are widely used in Ontario industry and, as a result, all three Ministry sector regulations (Mining and Mining Plants, Construction Projects, and Industrial Establishments) have provisions that deal with them. However, they are employed in, by far, the greatest numbers by companies that are covered by the Regulation for Industrial Establishments, Regulation 851. For this reason the short discussion of the legal requirements, which follows, is restricted to the OHS Act and Regulation 851 and the

Guideline itself has been developed with these legal provisions in mind. Nevertheless, the Guideline may still be usefully applied to powered-lift-truck operations in mines and on construction projects.

Both the OHS Act and the Regulation 851 have provisions that relate to work involving powered lift trucks, but neither mentions them specifically. Clause 25(1)(b) of the OHS Act refers to an employer's duty to provide "equipment" that is in good condition. Clauses 25(2)(a), (c) and (d) deal generally with worker training and supervision. And clause 25(2)(h) is the most general duty of all, requiring an employer to "take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker". Subsections 51(1) and (2) of Regulation 851 are more specific, with provisions that apply to a "lifting device", defined as,

a device that is used to raise or lower any material or object and includes its rails and other supports but does not include a device to which the Elevating Devices Act applies.

This definition clearly applies to powered lift trucks and should be interpreted broadly as including not just the elevating section of a truck but the entire vehicle. Other sections of Regulation 851 are also applicable although a variety of terms is used: lift truck (Section 52); mobile equipment (Section 54 ); material handling equipment (Sections 56 and 59); vehicle (Section 57); and powered equipment (Section 58).

This Guideline provides information on how these legal requirements may be met in the particular case of powered lift trucks. The term "powered lift truck" can itself be defined as "a mobile, power-propelled, self-loading truck equipped with a load carriage and attachments for lifting, transporting and stacking material". for a listing of the various classes of truck in use.

Compliance will require attention in the following areas:

general safety inspection and maintenance
assessment of load-handling capacity
competence of person doing load-handling assessment
inspection frequency
record keeping
operator competence
operating procedures
training.

A well-designed powered-lift-truck safety program should cover all these legal requirements and if implemented properly will ensure compliance.

For more information please feel free to contact us or email sales@premierliftequipment.com .