Thorough Examination prescribed by specialist

Is your fork lift truck in good shape - or is it a health hazard?

Visitors to IMHX 2007 (NEC, Birmingham, 13th to 16 th March) will be offered the opportunity of a consultation with Chas Day, a specialist with Consolidated Fork Truck Services (CFTS), who will be prescribing CFTS Thorough Examinations.

Thorough Examination is a legally obligatory health and safety procedure that must be administered to every working fork lift from the age of twelve months.

It should be repeated every three, six or twelve months thereafter, depending on the nature of the truck, its attachments and its tasks.

If a problem is diagnosed, treatment will be necessary.

If all is well, the examiner will give the truck a clean bill of health and pass it as fit to carry on working safely.

But as the consultant will be quick to point out, Thorough Examination must be much more than just a quick check-up if it is to be effective.

Truck users who are offered an 'inspection' - which may fulfil only part of the legislation governing Thorough Examination - should not confuse that with the real thing.

What's more, not all Thorough Examinations are carried out to the same high standards.

Negligence in applying any of the elements of the procedure could lead to serious complications.

For complete peace of mind, and to make sure they stay within the law, fork lift professionals are increasingly recommending that customers seek their Thorough Examinations only through companies accredited to the CFTS Thorough Examination scheme.

This is the materials handling industry's national accreditation scheme.

It has been developed by the two major industry trade associations - the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) and the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA), working together as CFTS - in consultation with the Health and Safety Executive.

Every accredited company has agreed to abide by its stringent procedural code.

The CFTS consultant will be holding surgeries every day at IMHX.

He will be at the BITA stand (20A30) every morning and the FLTA stand (20F122) every afternoon.

These are open surgeries and no appointments are necessary.

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