Warehouse Safety Tips: What To Look Out For
Discover some great warehouse safety tips, including regular equipment maintenance, keeping your facility clean, consistent safety training, and much more!
In this post, we are going to provide you with some great warehouse safety tips.
We have over 40 years in the material handling industry, and we would love to share our expertise and experience with you.
This definitive guide will go through some helpful strategies for keeping all your employees safe in your warehouse. So, let's get going.
Learn some helpful warehouse safety tips
Warehouse Safety Tips
1. Make Sure Your Equipment Is Regularly Maintained
Keeping your forklifts and other material handling equipment regularly maintained will go a long way to making sure that your workers are safe.
During regular maintenance, possible safety hazards can be detected and fixed before they cause an accident or injury.
For example, if your forklifts are serviced regularly, loose hoses will be tightened or replaced and flat tires can be repaired or replaced. Left unchecked, these seemingly small issues can result in an accident that could have been easily prevented.
Keep your forklifts well maintained
2. Keep Your Warehouse Clean
One of the best warehouse safety tips is to clean up messes as they happen. Even the smallest amount of debris, like a bit of plastic wrap, scrap pieces of wood, or some spilled chemicals on the floor, can cause an accident.
According to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, slips, trips and falls account for "almost 20 per cent of all lost-time injury claims."
Common hazards that cause workers to trip and fall include slippery surfaces, spills of wet or dry substances, and debris or items stored in pedestrian walkways.
When unpacking products, dispose of all packing materials immediately. As soon as spills happen, it's best to get them cleaned up so that they don't cause an accident.
You will especially want to make sure that any chemicals or hazardous wastes spills are cleaned up safely, properly, and immediately.
Also, it is best practice to have each shift of workers take a look around before they begin their shift to make sure there are not hazards lying around that could be a potential danger.
Keep your warehouse floor clear of debris as well as other obstacles
3. Provide Your Workers with Personal Protective Equipment
Another good preventative warehouse safety tip is to make sure all of your employees are provided with and use personal protective equipment.
Depending on the conditions in your warehouse and what job your workers are doing, you should encourage them to wear items such as:
Safety goggles
Hard hats
Noise reducing head gear
Gloves
Protective footwear
Safety Vests
The use of personal protective equipment is a great form of hazard avoidance and will help to keep your employees safe.
Personal protective equipment can help keep your workers safe
4. Make Sure Your Forklifts Are Carrying the Proper Amounts
According to OSHA, "there are roughly 85 forklift fatalities and 34,900 serious injuries each year with 42 percent of the forklift fatalities from the operator's being crushed by a tipping vehicle."
One of the main reasons why a forklift will tip over is because it is trying to carry a load that is too heavy for it.
Make sure that your operators are fully aware of the maximum load capacity of the forklift they are using.
This information will be found in your user manual or operating guide. Different types of forklifts have different load capacities, so make sure you know the right capacity for the truck that you are using.
Make sure you don’t carry more than your forklift can handle
5. Provide Proper Training for Your Operators
Every forklift operator needs to be trained on the particular forklift that they are using. If you hire an operator who has experience on different types of forklifts from what your company uses, that driver will need training on your forklifts.
Make sure that the training you give them has both a theory and a practical component so that they can have hands-on training before they start to work.
Choose a well-established training facility with a good reputation to make sure that your workers receive the best safety training possible.
![Forklift_dealers[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bf6c41789c1727b3aa7157a/1566574116225-3U4K7LVN4R8YAATTPLZL/Forklift_dealers%5B1%5D.jpg)
One of the best warehouse safety tips is to provide your forklift operators with the proper training
6. Treat Your Warehouse Like Busy Streets
Warehouses have a lot of traffic, with both pedestrians and vehicles, just like busy city streets. However, in your warehouse, both pedestrians and vehicles are using the same aisles for movement - they aren't separated.
In addition, almost every corner is blind, and nearly impossible to see around. Because of this, your warehouse is even more dangerous than a busy street. It is important that all of your employees understand this and are aware of the potential dangers.
Both pedestrians and forklift operators need to be aware of each other's presence and movement. Make sure to look both ways and be alert when crossing or going around corners.
Installing precautions such as forklift safety lights to warn everyone of a forklift's movements is one of the best warehouse safety tips and can help keep every one safe.
Forklift safety lights can greatly increase warehouse safety
7. Avoid Lifting Heavy Objects
Discourage your workers from lifting heavy objects on their own. Provide them with the proper tools to help them, such as lifting tables and other ergonomic material handling equipment.
Provide workers with ergonomic equipment to assist in lifting heavy objects
8. Stack Your Shelves Wisely
It is a good practice to stack heavier objects on lower shelving and lighter object on higher shelving.
Also, make sure that you know the weight restrictions of your storage racks so that you don't overload them and cause them to collapse or tip over.
Discourage workers from leaning against or sitting on stacked material.
Know the weight restrictions of your shelving
9. Make Your Staff and Visitors Aware of Emergency Exits and Supplies
Make sure all of your employees and anyone visiting your warehouse knows exactly where all emergency exits are. You can do this by clearly marking all your emergency exits as well as safety routes from any location in the facility.
Point these out to your staff so they are familiar with them. You can also make sure that everyone knows where your first-aid kits and supplies are kept. You should ensure that these supplies are fully stocked at all times.
Clearly mark your emergency exits
Wayco Cares about Your Workers' Safety
Wayco cares about worker safety. We can help you make your forklift equipment as safe as possible by performing regular maintenance for you.
Looking for professional safety training for all of your employees? Wayco provides a full range of forklift and other worker safety training programs. We can come to your facility or do the training at ours; whichever you prefer.
We also have a large supply of quality forklift safety lights and equipment that we can install for you to keep you and your employees safe.
Contact us today to set up a regular maintenance schedule, sign up for safety training, and to get your safety equipment installed.
Looking for Quality Used Forklifts? Contact Wayco
Need additional forklift equipment? A quality used vehicle can give you the most bang for your buck!
At Wayco, we carefully inspect all our pre-owned equipment to ensure that you are getting an excellent and reliable vehicle.
We offer incredible warranties as well as financing for used forklifts. Contact our sales staff today and find out how affordable pre-owned forklifts can be.
