OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is undertaking a proposed rulemaking process that may lead to new standards for workplace heat stress.

Scissor lifts are frequently used as work platforms — and anytime you’re asking workers to use heavy equipment, you need to think about compliance with relevant standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Operating forklifts — or even working around them — can be dangerous. In 2021, 70 workers lost their lives in forklift accidents. The previous year, more than 7,000 people were injured. According to the National Safety Council, more than half of these forklift injuries were the result of “transportation incidents.”

Typical loading docks have a 4-foot drop-off, which can be dangerous to workers and equipment. This is not hypothetical: Forklift operators have been fatally injured by falls from loading docks, and it’s difficult to overstate the hazard posed by an open dock door.

Custom industrial equipment can optimize space, improve throughput, and save money — but to enjoy the benefits, you’ll need to work with an experienced partner that understands how your facility works.

When material handling professionals need new equipment, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. Challenges tend to show up in specific ways, which encourages us to reach for specific solutions: A new Conveyor here, a replacement Lift Table there.

These days, many types of organizations may invest in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Utility companies operate public EV charging stations. Fleet owners may install a whole system to keep their EVs ready to roll. But increasingly, owners of commercial properties — and the businesses they rent to — are installing EV charging stations, too.

When you mix forklift traffic with unguarded, elevated surfaces, you face a serious risk of injury or worse. You can’t operate a busy loading dock without forklifts, but you can design docks to reduce the risk for forklift operators — and the industry could always improve its safety record.

A dock ramp may not be the most exciting purchase, but in order to build a productive facility, you’ll need to load products and materials — and if your ramp isn’t appropriate for your operation, you’ll lose time (and money) with each load.

If the nations of the world keep their current transportation and energy policies, the global fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) will grow to 145 million units by the end of the decade. If many governments adopt certain sustainability initiatives, the fleet could grow to 230 million vehicles by 2030. That will be around 12 percent of all vehicles, everywhere.