Beware complacency

Despite the many safety precautions that are usually found in warehouses, forklift accidents still occur, with complacency a common cause.

In most warehouse environments it is the responsibility of the forklift driver to be aware of pedestrians close to their path and in the vast majority of cases drivers complete their tasks without error or risk to pedestrians. However, because they often carry out the same task repeatedly without any problems, on occasion they can assume all is still safe when that may no longer be the case.

To reduce the likelihood of an accident and improve warehouse safety, some warehouse operators implement proximity sensors. These are effective to an extent, but are limited due to frequent false alarms that impact on productivity – and further breed forklift driver complacency.

False alarms in warehouse environments are not dissimilar to oversensitive car alarms, which when heard too often become a background noise to ignore rather than respond to. In potentially hazardous warehouse and logistics settings, ignoring the risks or alarms is not an option.

So what are the most effective solutions? One option proving to be especially effective is Location Aware Technology, which uses Wi-Fi signals to detect and accurately capture the position and speed of people and MHE on the move. A real-time virtual map is created that can pinpoint speed and direction of pedestrians and MHE, with an alarm being activated only when there is a genuinely dangerous situation - boosting warehouse pedestrian safety.