The Future of Safety for Material Handling Vehicles

Material handling vehicles continue to evolve in efficiency and productivity. However, safety continues to lag behind. According to Statista, “The global market volume amounted to over 1.4 billion units in 2020, with Asia, Europe, and North America as the main markets. According to a 2021 survey, over 52 percent of warehouse and distribution center operators in the U.S. were planning to invest in material handling equipment in the near future, while 56 percent had already invested in forklifts and lift trucks in 2018.” With all of those material handling vehicles being used 7 days per week and in most instances, 24 hours per day, the likelihood or risk level of a collision is high. Can the rise of AI technology work to correct it?

What are Material Handling Vehicles?

Material handling vehicles are the transportation vehicles that moves goods from one place to another. These vehicles are specially made to offset the balance so lifting heavy or light items are accomplished without tipping the material handling vehicles over. These special vehicles are not like cars and trucks that everyone uses. The material handling vehicles are an extension of the operator, meaning that both work in unison in order to get a job done. However, just like cars and trucks, material handling vehicles can get into accidents causing injuries, damage and even death.

The Quest for Safety

The forklift safety systems market is yet relatively young. But the demand for it has certainly grown. It rose 7.8% from 2018 to 2022 and is expected to increase 13.4% CAGR from 2023 to 2033 in just 10 years. The article states that due to the expansion of e-commerce. However, let’s not forget that there are millions of forklifts ready to be retrofitted with a forklift safety system in order to extend the lift of the forklift.

Forklift Safety System

Forklift safety systems have come in different technologies. These technologies such as geofencing and RFID were offered solutions until the AI machine and vision learning technologies became mature enough to work effectively in the various facilities. For the past few years, only a select few have developed forklift safety systems with the basis of AI technologies. One of those companies is SIERA.AI.

Forklift safety systems that reside on material handling vehicles, can be considered in two ways:

1. OSHA compliance with impact detection: This allows you to ask questions and collect the answers digitally. Proper vehicle maintenance and planning can be performed on a regular basis for maximum output.
2. Pedestrian detection, object detection (added to the OSHA compliance). This constantly watches for pedestrians as well as objects. What’s important is how the AI technology can learn the difference between a human and an object.

Along with both of these solutions, the telematics Dashboard automatically comes with the solution. This is because tracking the data of what the forklift ‘sees’ and experiences is vital to the future of safety.

How Does it Work?

When it comes to forklift safety systems on material handling vehicles, it’s always best to see it for yourself. Follow this link to our YouTube channel to watch how AI technologies work to keep people safe from injury and death, and reduce the amount of damage done to products and the facility.

Contact Us!

Contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.