Essay Example: Powered Industrial Truck Standard

The OSHA's powered industrial truck standard (1910.178) controls the operation of forklifts to ensure the safety of employees at the workplace. This industrial regulation has consistently been part of OSHA's top ten most violated standards. Despite it being acknowledged by all companies in the United States, the powered industrial truck standard (1910.178) is consistently violated due to the following reasons.

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First, OSHA's requirements are numerous and costly to fulfill, especially for small firms (Coble, 2018). OSHA regulations cover multiple aspects of work, including facility design, hazard identification, repair and maintenance procedures, forklift selection criteria, operating procedures, and supervision. These requirements are capital-intensive. Therefore, some firms may not be committed to observing them diligently.

In addition to that, most firms encourage multitasking of employees in various operations at the workplace to cut costs. Employees who multitask may be involved in activities for which they did not qualify to undertake, such as operating forklifts. This endangers the safety of other employees at the workplace and violates OSHA's regulations (Janicak & Cekada, 2016). OSHA's powered industrial truck standard (1910.178) prohibits the operation of forklifts by those who are not trained and certified by the employer. Multitasking results in contempt for this regulation.

Lastly, some firms do not have the proper capacity to facilitate OSHA's training requirements for forklift operators (Coble, 2018). OSHA requires that forklift operators must be trained consistently to replenish their skills and experience in different workplace situations. These involve initial and refresher training and evaluation to update the employees' knowledge for the efficient operation of machines at the workplace (Janicak & Cekada, 2016). The cost of conducting and facilitating refresher pieces of training and evaluations might not be favorable to some firms. Therefore, the firms may disregard spending money on extra training activities to minimize expenditure and optimize profits.

In conclusion, OSHA's powered industrial truck standard (1910.178) has been consistently violated due to the complexity of its requirements, high associated costs, and firm's inadequate capacity to facilitate OSHA's training requirements. Firms should be prepared to fulfill the required safety measures for employees and keep OSHA at bay.

References

Coble, D. F. (2018). Standards Incorporated by Reference: Little-Known Secrets. Professional Safety, 63(05), 50-56. Retrieved from https://www.onepetro.org/journal-paper/ASSE-18-05-50

Janicak, C. A., & Cekada, T. L. (2016). Regulating forklift safety: Strategies to prevent injury and improve compliance. Professional Safety, 61(10), 38-44. Retrieved from https://www.onepetro.org/journal-paper/ASSE-16-10-38