Industrial Truck Association chairman Scott Johnson talks about the goals of National Forklift Safety Day and how he plans to build on past successes to support the organization's mission in the future.
Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
The forklift industry will once again be out in force in Washington, D.C., as members of the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) take part in the group's fifth annual National Forklift Safety Day. This event, scheduled for June 12 in the nation's capital and across the country, will provide an opportunity for the industry to educate customers, the public, and government officials about the safe use of forklifts and the importance of proper operator training.
Safety is one of Washington, D.C.-based ITA's biggest priorities. The organization, which represents manufacturers of lift trucks, tow tractors, pallet trucks, and automated guided vehicles in North America, promotes international standards for product safety, advances engineering and safety practices, and partners with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other safety-focused organizations.
To learn more about the event, we spoke with Scott Johnson, newly elected chairman of ITA's board of directors. Johnson, a 20-year veteran of the material handling industry, is vice president of marketing and sales for Lexington, Ky.-based forklift manufacturer Clark Material Handling Co. Johnson joined Clark in 1995; prior to taking on his current responsibilities, he held the positions of vice president of dealer services, vice president of business development, director of marketing, director of aftermarket sales, and regional sales manager, trucks and parts. Johnson has long been active in ITA, having previously served on its Statistics Committee and Executive Committee. An active member of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA), he holds a degree from the University of Kentucky. Here's what he had to say.
Q: What is the Industrial Truck Association's mission, and who are its members?
A: For more than 65 years, the Industrial Truck Association has been the leading organization for manufacturers of forklifts and other types of industrial trucks, including the suppliers of industrial truck component parts and accessories. We have a diverse international membership, and we cover products shipped into the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Based in Washington, D.C., ITA is an influential voice in national and international standards development for the industry. We advance engineering practices to promote safer products, disseminate statistical marketplace information, and provide industry forums for learning and networking.
We have two categories of members. Our regular members are the primary manufacturers of forklift trucks shipped into North America. Lift trucks have been used for material handling in the United States since 1917, and we have ITA members that date back to that beginning. Our associate members include suppliers that provide components, accessories, and attachments and the inputs used in manufacturing state-of-the-art industrial trucks—everything from the steel to the tires to the controllers. Collectively, we address the top issues that impact today's market, working to ensure that we have products that will best serve our customers in the future.
We also maintain relationships with international associations in our industry, primarily the Japanese Industrial Vehicle Association, the Chinese Industrial Truck Association, and the Industrial Truck Division of the Federation of European Manufacturers. Along with ITA, these organizations constitute the Alliance of Industrial Truck Organizations, which pursues globalized standards and collects market data in the form of its "World Industrial Truck Statistics" reports.
Our members are the backbone of an industry that has a significant impact on the national economy, contributing over $25 billion to U.S. gross domestic product annually. For every worker directly employed by the industrial truck sector, another 2.5 jobs are supported in the wider economy. Our industry hires more military veterans—10 percent of our total employment—than all other manufacturing groups and industry at large. We've been breaking records for shipments, with over a quarter of a million units last year, which follows two previous record years. In short, ITA is a busy association in a thriving industry.
Q: How does the organization's work benefit the end users of lift trucks?
A: The association devotes significant time and resources toward developing and improving standards that enhance the products our members sell. One of the ways that ITA promotes safety is through our formal alliance with OSHA, through which, among other things, we provide forklift safety seminars to OSHA personnel. We estimate we've reached over 600 OSHA specialists with the program. And as the driving force behind OSHA's adoption of an effective operator-training regulation some years ago, we remain committed to the idea that a better-trained operator is a safer operator.
Q: what will be your personal priorities as ITA's new chair?
A: We have a robust and mature association that has benefited from years of excellent leadership, so I'd obviously like to continue that tradition. For the near term, I'd like to see our group continue to work closely with OSHA on a regulatory initiative to update OSHA regulations dealing with powered industrial trucks. Specifically, we want the federal regulation to reference the latest edition of the national consensus standard that covers our products. Believe it or not, the federal regulation currently references the 1969 version of the standard—we want it to reference the 2016 version because that represents nearly 50 years of improvement in the standards that we use to build our forklifts. The work is well under way, but I'd like to see it over the finish line as soon as possible.
I also want us to continue developing metrics and reporting tools that reflect the positive impact we have on the overall U.S. economy, continue developing standards that promote safer products, grow our membership, and constantly look for ways to enhance our members' opportunities for success. I'm going to work with ITA's full-time staff in Washington, D.C., to continue and build on what has been a very successful association.
Q: This year marks the fifth annual National Forklift Safety Day. What has this event accomplished to date, and will ITA continue these efforts in the future?
A: At a recent ITA meeting we reflected on the previous four years of National Forklift Safety Day. Overall, we're very pleased with the year-over-year progress of this initiative. Attendance in D.C. has increased each year, as has the diversity of our speakers. Member-company events at their local facilities have continued to develop, with more and more manufacturers hosting open houses and other public events to promote the day. We've partnered with well-known material handling organizations like MHI, MHEDA, and DC Velocity to promote and support National Forklift Safety Day, and we intend to continue learning and improving on our experience.
Q: What's the main message ITA would like DC Velocity's readers to take away from National Forklift Safety Day?
A: The main message is the importance of forklift operator and pedestrian safety, emphasizing that different stakeholders working together—manufacturers, dealers, employers and employees, and federal and state safety officials—will drive continued declines in the accident rate. We know from the data that better operator training is critical, so we'll continue to promote it at every opportunity.
We believe that the OSHA operator-training regulation provides an excellent template for a training and evaluation program, so the most important thing is to increase meaningful compliance with it, especially by smaller companies and for the most vulnerable employees, such as younger operators and temporary workers. Our National Forklift Safety Day program will advance those themes and promote the idea that safety is a shared goal.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.