How Much Do You Spend Each Year from Forklift Damages?

Forklift to forklift collisions occur more often than you think. In fact, a facility with less than 100,000 square feet spends $30K – $40K each year claiming and repairing damages. A facility with greater than 100,000 square feet spends $100K – $300K each year claiming and repairing damages. These are some large dollar values that all companies would like to reduce. In addition to the hard costs, there are other areas such as downtime and productivity that can also be factored into the overall loss. How can forklift to forklift collisions be reduced?

What is Forklift to Forklift Collisions?

Forklift to forklift collisions is when two or more forklift or lift trucks accidentally impact each other and cause the equipment damage. The equipment damage can dents or scratches, or can be as severe where the equipment is no longer functioning and must be taken out of circulation for a period of time. The period of time causes downtime and productivity for the company, which in turn can cause the company to lose money and/or increase costs.

Cause of Forklift to Forklift Collisions

Forklift to forklift collisions can occur when the forklift operators are not aware of their surroundings. Even though a forklift operator may check around their space before moving, the forklift operator cannot constantly watch and do their task at hand. Now add on another forklift operator, and they are performing their task, and now you have a problem. Even though OSHA states that there is to be three forklifts distance from one to another, that may not be possible if two forklift are in the same aisle. It certainly is possible when two forklifts are in an open area. So how can this be avoided?

Current Solutions

There are some products offered today to alert others around the forklift with noises and flashing lights. These solutions have been around awhile, however, helpful, accidents and forklift to forklift collisions continue to occur. What is the next step in forklift safety in order to reduce the number of forklift to forklift collisions? How about a forklift safety system by SIERA.AI.

Forklift Safety System

Forklift safety system by SIERA.AI is a perfect way to reduce forklift to forklift collisions. Our forklift safety system alerts the forklift drivers in two ways: object detection and pedestrian detection. For today’s discussion, we are discussing object detection. First, anything that is not a living breathing person is considered an object. Any equipment, mobile equipment, customer product or the facility itself is considered an object. Let’s discuss how this works.

The Experience

As the forklift driver enter the forklift, the driver scans his badge or enters a PIN number. Once the pre-shift inspection is complete and passes the inspection, the drivers begin working their shift. As the driver works, the forklift and its operator will experience obstacles of pedestrians and objects. When an object comes within 3’, 5’, 16’, whatever you decide is a safe distance, the forklift safety system will give the forklift driver an audio and visual alarm at the same time. As the audio sound alarms, the forklift safety system will begin to flash a symbol of a box. This is to catch the operator’s attention. Now the operator can take action way before the object comes too close to the forklift.

Summary

Forklift to forklift collision can be avoided with a forklift safety system. Monitor all of the object and pedestrian detections with the telemetry Dashboard. Contact us to learn more about the SIERA.AI forklift safety system to help bring down the number of potential accidents in your facility today. Contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.