Forklift licenses and such

From summer 1974 through 1976, I worked at NASA Ames Research Center, high school and college work exp. I had a US Federal Government drivers license for light truck and forklift to 5t.

In every other job I held in the states, I was merely asked if I could drive a forklift, or it was just assumed I could.

Drove around at work here a good 8 months before someone thought to ask me if I held a NSW forklift drivers license. Was told it was an on the spot fine of several grand for me, even more for my employer, if Work Cover happened by and asked for a license I couldn't produce! Having been bought by a large AU corporation, things like this are being cleaned up, and most of us that didn't have one now do. Made me curious though, how many states in the US issue forklift licenses? I'd never heard of any. Oh, it comes under the heading of High Risk Work here and can cover a number of things like cranes, etc.

Related, I have tickets (certificate) now in Work, Health, Safety; Confined Spaces; and next weekend, will get my Working at Heights ticket. Will be getting Cert 3 in first aid and another ticket for emergency response team.

Again, don't recall hearing of any such things in the States, outside of levels of training for first aid. Mostly worked in small job shops though. So, are these sorts of tickets/certs common in large companies there?

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson
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Jon welcome o to the world of work health and safety in Australia . It's way over the top regulated by people who have no idea about working in the real world .

Until recently I was employed on a Defence establishment here and the WHS there is regulated by Comcare a branch of the Federal Govt . Thier inspectors came into the machine shop and ended up closing it down . They wanted a guard around the cutter spindle on a manual milling machine , dead stop foot switches for the pedestal grinders , the work shop manually operated press fully guarded and a stack of other rediculous things. I questioned the inspectors as to thier experinece in a machine shop and both admitted they knew nothing about operating any of the machinery or had the knowledge or training to do so. All of thier wants came out of a WHS safety manual that they were porting around obviously written by some one with the same knowledge and skill level as the two inspectors.

Eventaully we got all of the stuff done , the spindle guard for the mill is only used when the inspectors are around , the grinder foot control off switches are not dead stop but can be used to turn off the machine. ( imagine what a 14" griding wheel would do if it came to a dead stop from full speed).The press has guards which need to be removed before it can be safley used.

Yes we are now under the control of the WHS stazi and all it does is cause frustration and drives the cost of making any thing through the roof.

Reply to
Bluey69

heh, meant to reply here, went PM instead...

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

Gunner,

Keyboard biff, accidentally deleted your post while responding. After what I learned here, thought there probably was something similar there, and just not really surprised given the nature of small job shops, that none were the least into such things. Of course, warehouses and large facilities are a bit different.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

License? Who needs a license? I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

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A $38 cert looks to be cheaper than a stiff OSHA fine, both for the boss and driver.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Haha, I've been watching forklift accident videos. Man, there's some read idiots out there. We're undergoing massive expansion, contractors everywhere. Dirt road around the backside of the plant passes under one of the two high voltage lines feeding the plant. One contractor has touched the wires twice with their crane. Same operator. lol...

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

I thought that it was a Russian vodka warehouse.

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I do not see how a certificate could prevent what happened.

A floor guard, maybe would work.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17325

================

Indeed, a certificate only shows an individual has been exposed to specific education/training, and possibly passed some sort of test.

The basic assumption is that when people know better they will do better.

This appears to be correct for the majority, but there is always the odd individual who is stubborn and/or stupid, and the individual who gets careless or in a hurry. It is managements' responsibility to correct this, which can be a problem if the odd individual is the supervision/management.

While there are still "incidents," from the available cost data it appears investment in [re]training, including short "refresher" courses about occupational hazards has a high return, by reducing equipment and product damage, employee death and injury, and liability for customer injury, for example food born illness.

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

F. George McDuffee fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

No less frequently than annually, we gave a full-day seminar on safety, handling, and general precautions regarding fireworks and fireworks compositions. Sometimes, depending upon how many new employees we'd hired, we'd give them every three months. Yes, each new employee was given a one-on-one lesson in such, although the more spectacular (and expensive) demos were reserved for the formal group reviews.

The new employees were awed by the 'accident' demos, and the older employees enjoyed the refresher, the luncheon, and the day's pay without actually having to 'work' for it.

We also had a company-wide policy that ANY employee, including the most junior recruits could stop any process being done by _anyone_ (even their own supervisor or a manager), if they perceived it as dangerous. We had a protocol to resolve such stoppages, which occurred only four or five times in the ten+ years I managed the company.

The two methods together paid monumental dividends.

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

A certificate, of course, would not prevent such an accident. It would, however, satisfy the authorities and the insurance companies that you, as an employer, took reasonable measures (by getting your employees certified) to avoid the incident.

Just as you wouldn't send an unlicensed driver out in your company truck it would be foolish to invite wrath from above to save $38.

Reply to
rangerssuck

Can you comment on the Black Mag accident?

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

"Jim Wilkins" fired this volley in news:mv8ohq$ndr$1 @dont-email.me:

Refresh me. I don't know of one called "black mag"... Do you mean MINE, in the ball mill/mixer?

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Here is the list of deficiencies:

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"The employer did not provide properly designed catch pans to prevent spillage of explosives and other hazardous materials in the processing areas. The employer spread paper on the floor to capture spillage of explosive materials."

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

"Jim Wilkins" fired this volley in news:mv9crs$9dd $ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

I read up on it. Apparently, the major infraction was storing more explosive materials than were allowed under the license, and further, more than was prudent for the situation.

Obviously, from the severity of the blast, the amount of explosive materials in the processing area was dangerously excessive.

We went to great lengths to have stockmen _continually_ remove processed items from our assembly buildings, in order not to exceed the allowable (or safe) weights. We chose to err on the side of 'safe', keeping levels far below what the regulations required.

We never had one, but I think if we'd had an explosion during assembly, only the one operator involved would have had any injuries, at all. And I believe those would have been non-fatal. That was our intent, at least.

Lloyd

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Don't know about ASA but all are required anywhere here in Canada.

Reply to
clare

The company that put up the stacks are in trouble. None were tied to prevent tipping. Racks might have been overloaded.

Looked home brew cheap design.

Mart> >

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

Well, shit happens. A good person may have a bad day. Maybe he meant to floor the brake pedal , but accidentally hit gas. This is why they invented guardrails and pallet rack guards.

Right

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17325

Nice, that's the way it should be done.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

I've always maintained that the public can't drive at all. Many can't even _steer_. At least once a week, headlines around here (town of

35k people) have articles showing an upside down vehicle in a ditch, or run into a tree. One truck _rolled_ in an accident on a 25mph street in heavy traffic. How do you even DO that?

He LIVED?

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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