Fork lifts and working platforms

As people working in the materials handling business we must all, at some time, have laughed - or cringed - at one of those amazingly stupid but true photos of someone using a fork lift irresponsibly.

You know the sort of thing: a window cleaner at the top of a ladder that's perched on a table that's been lifted high on the forks. Most of us have enough common sense to avoid such an obvious risk, but to what extent can a fork lift truck be used legally - and sensibly - to raise a working platform?

Well first of all, the law totally forbids the use of pallets, skips or stillages - or any 'home- made' or improvised device - as a platform to lift people.

Under certain exceptional circumstances a purpose-built platform may be used. This will be a specially designed platform from a manufacturer of specialist attachments. It will always have sides, to contain the worker safely, and it must be provided with a number of other safety devices specified by the law.

But even the safest of purpose-built platforms cannot legally be used for routine tasks. So, for example, it must not be used for painting, cleaning, maintenance, stocktaking or order picking.

It can only be used for occasional emergency tasks such as checking for damage at height, changing essential light fittings, clearing blocked gutters etc.

A number of further restrictions and regulations apply to the design and deployment of platforms. These are given in HSE Guidance Note PM 28 (3rd Edition), Working Platforms (Non-Integrated) On Forklift Trucks, downloadable free of charge from the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk, which should be studied by anyone considering the use of a platform.

One of the rules, for instance, is that any fork lift truck that may be used with a working platform must have a Thorough Examination at least every six months - as must the working platform itself.

The information above is from a soon-to-be-published Fork Lift Truck Association Fact Sheet. The FLTA website, at www.fork-truck.org.uk, offers a range of other Fact Sheets giving advice on the law and best practice in response to frequently asked questions.

FLTA
www.fork-truck.org.uk