National Forklift Safety Day: A 20-Minute Plan for Your Crew

What is National Forklift Safety Day?

A yearly event from the Industrial Truck Association, which represents forklift manufacturers. ITA describes it as "an opportunity for forklift manufacturers and the industry to highlight the safe use of forklifts, the value of operator training, and the need for daily equipment checks."

The event itself is a program of presentations from government representatives, safety experts and industry representatives. The 2026 event was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and streamed live, and its speakers included the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. ITA posts the recording and slides on its National Forklift Safety Day page.

For most employers, the value is the date on the calendar: a reason to stop the floor for twenty minutes and practice the basics. That is what the plan below is for.

A 20-minute forklift safety plan for your crew

Five blocks, three of them out on the floor, not in a meeting room. Run it at the start of a shift, before the trucks get busy.

1. Open (2 minutes)

Keep it to one fact and one question. The fact: in 2018, the last year the Bureau of Labor Statistics published a forklift-specific count, 115 workers died in forklift-related incidents. The question: who has had a near miss this year? Don't ask for names. The point is that everyone in the room has seen one.

2. Pre-shift inspection (5 minutes)

OSHA requires every truck to be examined before it is put in service, at least daily, and after each shift if trucks run around the clock, 1910.178(q)(7). Have one operator walk a parked truck with our forklift inspection checklist, reading each item out loud. Ask the crew what gets skipped when the shift is busy, and what they do when a truck fails. The answer should be: tag it out and report it, (p)(1).

3. Tip-over drill (5 minutes)

NIOSH called overturns the leading cause of forklift deaths. On a parked sit-down truck with the power off, have each operator buckle in and hold the position from OSHA's forklift eTool: don't jump, hold tight to the steering wheel, brace your feet, lean away from the impact. Then cover stand-up trucks with rear entry, where the eTool says to step backward off the truck instead. Ask who drives without the belt, and explain that OSHA expects employers to require it on trucks that have one.

4. Pedestrian walk (5 minutes)

Walk the crew to the nearest blind corner or cross aisle, where OSHA requires operators to slow down and sound the horn, 1910.178(n)(4). Stand where a walker would stand and ask what the driver can see. Leave with one fix: a mirror, a corner cleared of stored pallets, fresh floor paint. Our forklift pedestrian safety guide has a ten-point walk if you want the longer version.

5. Close (3 minutes)

Each person names one habit they will change. Everyone signs the attendance sheet. Write down the fixes from the walk with a name and a date next to each, and post the list where the crew can see it.

Does a forklift safety day count as refresher training?

Not on its own. OSHA's refresher rule is triggered by events, not by the calendar: an operator seen driving unsafely, an accident or near miss, a failed evaluation, a new type of truck, or a change in the workplace, 1910.178(l)(4)(ii). And refresher training must include "an evaluation of the effectiveness of that training," (l)(4)(i). A 20-minute talk with no evaluation does not meet that.

Separately, every operator needs a performance evaluation at least once every three years, (l)(4)(iii). A safety day is a good time to check who is due. If the pedestrian walk or the tip-over drill shows that someone needs retraining, schedule it.

Our online course covers the classroom part of initial or refresher training, and the employer does the hands-on evaluation. For the full set of rules behind this plan, see our forklift safety rules and OSHA forklift regulations in plain English.

Event details from the Industrial Truck Association's National Forklift Safety Day page and press releases, checked September 29, 2026. Rule text from 29 CFR 1910.178 on osha.gov.

Last updated: September 29, 2026