Lift truck makers celebrate National Forklift Safety Day 2018 with special offers and local events
Lift truck manufacturers, dealers, and providers of associated products will be observing National Forklift Safety Day on June 12, 2018. Here are just a few examples of the events, literature, and promotions they'll be offering around the country.
The main event for National Forklift Safety Day 2018 will be held in Washington, D.C., on June 12. But lift truck manufacturers, dealers, and providers of associated products and services around the country will be holding their own events to help customers improve safety in their warehouses and distribution centers. Operator training classes, information resources, and safety-themed community events are among the many ways forklift makers and local dealers will help their customers keep forklift safety top of mind.
Below are just a few examples; for more information about National Forklift Safety Day programs and events in your area, contact your local forklift dealer.
Faced with increasing productivity demands and a shortage of skilled labor, warehousing and distribution operations are looking for new ways to attract and train the next generation of lift truck operators. Learning tools that complement forklift training, such as the The Raymond Corp.'s Raymond Virtual Reality Simulator, a 2018 MHI Innovation Award Winner, can help. The first of its kind in the industry, the simulator allows an operator to enter a simulated warehousing environment using an existing Raymond forklift. In recognition of National Forklift Safety Day, Raymond is giving away FREE a limited number of sample views of a 360-degree video that showcases the technology while providing a similar virtual experience as the Raymond Virtual Reality Simulator. Quantities are limited. Register at www.raymondcorp.com/service/training/virtual-reality-simulator.
Barclay Brand Ferdon, the Yale dealer in central and northern New Jersey, will hold its third annual "Improving Safety Through Advanced Technologies" safety summit on Tuesday, June 12, from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., at 2401 S. Clinton Ave., South Plainfield, N.J. This FREE event features expert seminars and displays designed to help end users ensure their operations run as safely and efficiently as possible. Seminar topics include:
Introduction to and FAQs on forklift safety
Safer ways to move product—robotics
Powering your fleet with safety in mind
Monitoring fleet safety wirelessly
Improving loading dock safety
Attendees can also view displays covering such lift truck safety topics as inspection and maintenance practices, operator training, industrial battery handling, aerial safety and fall protection, pedestrian safety in the warehouse, and dock safety. For more information, visit www.bbfyale.com/safety-summit or register at www.bbfyale.com/safety-summit-rsvp?view=form.
For the past four years Clark Material Handling Co. has celebrated Forklift Safety Day with a community event at its North American headquarters, 700 Enterprise Dr., Lexington, Ky. This year the company celebrates its fifth affair, on June 12, with a catered lunch, forklift rodeo for certified drivers, and a driving course for those who have never driven an industrial truck. Local radio station 98.1 "The Bull" will also be on site to add to the festivities. Prizes will be given out during the event. This FREE program is open to the public; attendees may register on site the day of the event. Additionally, that week Clark will be offering, at no charge, forklift operator training classes to several local businesses.
Each year, in honor of National Forklift Safety Day, Arnold Machinery Co., the authorized Hyster dealer in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and parts of Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada, provides its customers with FREE forklift- and pedestrian-safety posters that are hand delivered. The purpose is to provide a review of safety best practices and ensure the instructional posters are posted to help support a safety culture year round. Arnold Machinery Co. safety representatives will drop by end-user locations within their service area on Tuesday, June 12, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. To submit poster requests within the Arnold Machinery Co. service area, please visit arnoldmachinerymh.com/rsvp/. For all other customer requests, please visit www.hyster.com/safety.
Illinois Material Handling and Wisconsin Lift Truck, both part of the Wolter Group, are offering FREE introductory virtual reality (VR) training on National Forklift Safety Day. Wisconsin Lift Truck and Illinois Material Handling are the first authorized distributors for forklift simulators developed by RVC, Really-Virtual Consulting LLC, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned business that employs Navy and Army vets. The newly released forklift-simulator training program allows operators to train using real forklift controls in a controlled virtual reality environment. The system is especially suitable for providing supplemental training to new employees with little to no experience or for correcting old habits of experienced drivers. The session will be held June 12, 2018, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., at Illinois Material Handling, 490 W. North Frontage Rd. Bolingbrook, Ill. Attendance is limited to the first 25 people to sign up. For more information or to register, call (262) 781-8011 x3083 or send an email to operatortraining@woltergroupllc.com
Customers can sign up for no-cost forklift safety consultations at Toyota Material Handling's dealerships in honor of National Forklift Safety Day. The consultations, provided by authorized Toyota dealers in more than 230 locations in North America, can provide valuable insight about ways to reduce risk in the workplace. Consultations will be held on National Forklift Safety Day, June 12, 2018. For more information, contact your local Toyota Forklift dealer, or submit a request at www.toyotaforklift.com/request-a-quote?r=forklift-training. For more about forklift safety, visit www.toyotaforklift.com/national-forklift-safety-day.
UniCarriers Americas is observing National Forklift Safety Day by offering FREE forklift operator training at its factory stores in Hartland, Wis., and Woburn, Mass. Unicarriers is also celebrating with special parts pricing from its Aftermarket Department. Interested? Please contact Ralph Klute of Capital Equipment & Handling (Wisconsin) at ralphk@cehwi.com or Debbie Queen of New England Industrial Truck (Massachusetts) at dqueen@neit.com for more details about the factory store promotions.
On June 12 MCFA (Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc.) will partner with the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) to raise awareness of forklift safety and inspire stakeholders throughout the industry to help spread the message. Since many forklift-related accidents are attributed to operator oversight or operators being unfamiliar with their forklift equipment, MCFA has found it imperative to focus on the importance of proper training and certification. MCFA's "Engaged in Safety" campaign will reinforce the message that properly trained forklift operators are aware of the potential hazards associated with operating a forklift in their environment and implement the control measures necessary to minimize the risks associated with those hazards. For more information about the Engaged in Safety initiative, go to www.mcfa.com/nfsd2018.
In honor of National Forklift Safety Day 2018, Raymond Handling Concepts Corp. (RHCC), a material handling equipment supplier in Northern California and the Northwest, has announced that its "Safety Show Offs" contest is now live until June 30. RHCC wants to hear from its customers on how they promote a safe workplace. The winner of the contest will receive a catered lunch for up to 30 people, provided by RHCC. Submit your contest entry here. To qualify for the contest, you must be a current customer using any model of Raymond lift truck. To enter, customers must submit a photo or video of their forklift, write a statement about how they promote a safe workplace, and provide the number of days since their last forklift accident.
Crown Equipment, one of the world's largest material handling companies, is using National Forklift Safety Day to kick off an ongoing educational campaign designed to raise awareness of important forklift safety topics. The campaign is built around the availability of new safety resources and content on crown.com. Beginning on National Forklift Safety Day, a series of safety-related articles will be posted to Crown's blog. A new product safety-features guide will be available for download on Crown's safety page. The campaign also includes a series of educational safety posters that will be released sequentially for download so end users can display them within their facility. As part of the campaign, Crown will also be highlighting customer stories that feature safety best practices and impactful results.
Penske said today that its facility in Channahon, Illinois, is now fully operational, and is predominantly powered by an onsite photovoltaic (PV) solar system, expected to generate roughly 80% of the building's energy needs at 200 KW capacity. Next, a Grand Rapids, Michigan, location will be also active in the coming months, and Penske's Linden, New Jersey, location is expected to go online in 2025.
And over the coming year, the Pennsylvania-based company will add seven more sites under its power purchase agreement with Sunrock Distributed Generation, retrofitting them with new PV solar systems which are expected to yield a total of roughly 600 KW of renewable energy. Those additional sites are all in California: Fresno, Hayward, La Mirada, National City, Riverside, San Diego, and San Leandro.
On average, four solar panel-powered Penske Truck Leasing facilities will generate an estimated 1-million-kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually and will result in an emissions avoidance of 442 metric tons (MT) CO2e, which is equal to powering nearly 90 homes for one year.
"The initiative to install solar systems at our locations is a part of our company's LEED-certified facilities process," Ivet Taneva, Penske’s vice president of environmental affairs, said in a release. "Investing in solar has considerable economic impacts for our operations as well as the environmental benefits of further reducing emissions related to electricity use."
Overall, Penske Truck Leasing operates and maintains more than 437,000 vehicles and serves its customers from nearly 1,000 maintenance facilities and more than 2,500 truck rental locations across North America.
That challenge is one of the reasons that fewer shoppers overall are satisfied with their shopping experiences lately, Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Zebra said in its “17th Annual Global Shopper Study.”th Annual Global Shopper Study.” While 85% of shoppers last year were satisfied with both the in-store and online experiences, only 81% in 2024 are satisfied with the in-store experience and just 79% with online shopping.
In response, most retailers (78%) say they are investing in technology tools that can help both frontline workers and those watching operations from behind the scenes to minimize theft and loss, Zebra said.
Just 38% of retailers currently use AI-based prescriptive analytics for loss prevention, but a much larger 50% say they plan to use it in the next 1-3 years. That was followed by self-checkout cameras and sensors (45%), computer vision (46%), and RFID tags and readers (42%) that are planned for use within the next three years, specifically for loss prevention.
Those strategies could help improve the brick and mortar shopping experience, since 78% of shoppers say it’s annoying when products are locked up or secured within cases. Adding to that frustration is that it’s hard to find an associate while shopping in stores these days, according to 70% of consumers. In response, some just walk out; one in five shoppers has left a store without getting what they needed because a retail associate wasn’t available to help, an increase over the past two years.
The survey also identified additional frustrations faced by retailers and associates:
challenges with offering easy options for click-and-collect or returns, despite high shopper demand for them
the struggle to confirm current inventory and pricing
lingering labor shortages and increasing loss incidents, even as shoppers return to stores
“Many retailers are laying the groundwork to build a modern store experience,” Matt Guiste, Global Retail Technology Strategist, Zebra Technologies, said in a release. “They are investing in mobile and intelligent automation technologies to help inform operational decisions and enable associates to do the things that keep shoppers happy.”
The survey was administered online by Azure Knowledge Corporation and included 4,200 adult shoppers (age 18+), decision-makers, and associates, who replied to questions about the topics of shopper experience, device and technology usage, and delivery and fulfillment in store and online.
Supply chains are poised for accelerated adoption of mobile robots and drones as those technologies mature and companies focus on implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation across their logistics operations.
That’s according to data from Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones, released this week. The report shows that several mobile robotics technologies will mature over the next two to five years, and also identifies breakthrough and rising technologies set to have an impact further out.
Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with each new technology or innovation through five phases of maturity and adoption. Chief supply chain officers can use the research to find robotic solutions that meet their needs, according to Gartner.
Gartner, Inc.
The mobile robotic technologies set to mature over the next two to five years are: collaborative in-aisle picking robots, light-cargo delivery robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for transport, mobile robotic goods-to-person systems, and robotic cube storage systems.
“As organizations look to further improve logistic operations, support automation and augment humans in various jobs, supply chain leaders have turned to mobile robots to support their strategy,” Dwight Klappich, VP analyst and Gartner fellow with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Mobile robots are continuing to evolve, becoming more powerful and practical, thus paving the way for continued technology innovation.”
Technologies that are on the rise include autonomous data collection and inspection technologies, which are expected to deliver benefits over the next five to 10 years. These include solutions like indoor-flying drones, which utilize AI-enabled vision or RFID to help with time-consuming inventory management, inspection, and surveillance tasks. The technology can also alleviate safety concerns that arise in warehouses, such as workers counting inventory in hard-to-reach places.
“Automating labor-intensive tasks can provide notable benefits,” Klappich said. “With AI capabilities increasingly embedded in mobile robots and drones, the potential to function unaided and adapt to environments will make it possible to support a growing number of use cases.”
Humanoid robots—which resemble the human body in shape—are among the technologies in the breakthrough stage, meaning that they are expected to have a transformational effect on supply chains, but their mainstream adoption could take 10 years or more.
“For supply chains with high-volume and predictable processes, humanoid robots have the potential to enhance or supplement the supply chain workforce,” Klappich also said. “However, while the pace of innovation is encouraging, the industry is years away from general-purpose humanoid robots being used in more complex retail and industrial environments.”
An eight-year veteran of the Georgia company, Hakala will begin his new role on January 1, when the current CEO, Tero Peltomäki, will retire after a long and noteworthy career, continuing as a member of the board of directors, Cimcorp said.
According to Hakala, automation is an inevitable course in Cimcorp’s core sectors, and the company’s end-to-end capabilities will be crucial for clients’ success. In the past, both the tire and grocery retail industries have automated individual machines and parts of their operations. In recent years, automation has spread throughout the facilities, as companies want to be able to see their entire operation with one look, utilize analytics, optimize processes, and lead with data.
“Cimcorp has always grown by starting small in the new business segments. We’ve created one solution first, and as we’ve gained more knowledge of our clients’ challenges, we have been able to expand,” Hakala said in a release. “In every phase, we aim to bring our experience to the table and even challenge the client’s initial perspective. We are interested in what our client does and how it could be done better and more efficiently.”
Although many shoppers will
return to physical stores this holiday season, online shopping remains a driving force behind peak-season shipping challenges, especially when it comes to the last mile. Consumers still want fast, free shipping if they can get it—without any delays or disruptions to their holiday deliveries.
One disruptor that gets a lot of headlines this time of year is package theft—committed by so-called “porch pirates.” These are thieves who snatch parcels from front stairs, side porches, and driveways in neighborhoods across the country. The problem adds up to billions of dollars in stolen merchandise each year—not to mention headaches for shippers, parcel delivery companies, and, of course, consumers.
Given the scope of the problem, it’s no wonder online shoppers are worried about it—especially during holiday season. In its annual report on package theft trends, released in October, the
security-focused research and product review firm Security.org found that:
17% of Americans had a package stolen in the past three months, with the typical stolen parcel worth about $50. Some 44% said they’d had a package taken at some point in their life.
Package thieves poached more than $8 billion in merchandise over the past year.
18% of adults said they’d had a package stolen that contained a gift for someone else.
Ahead of the holiday season, 88% of adults said they were worried about theft of online purchases, with more than a quarter saying they were “extremely” or “very” concerned.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some low-tech steps consumers can take to help guard against porch piracy along with some high-tech logistics-focused innovations in the pipeline that can protect deliveries in the last mile. First, some common-sense advice on avoiding package theft from the Security.org research:
Install a doorbell camera, which is a relatively low-cost deterrent.
Bring packages inside promptly or arrange to have them delivered to a secure location if no one will be at home.
Consider using click-and-collect options when possible.
If the retailer allows you to specify delivery-time windows, consider doing so to avoid having packages sit outside for extended periods.
These steps may sound basic, but they are by no means a given: Fewer than half of Americans consider the timing of deliveries, less than a third have a doorbell camera, and nearly one-fifth take no precautions to prevent package theft, according to the research.
Tech vendors are stepping up to help. One example is
Arrive AI, which develops smart mailboxes for last-mile delivery and pickup. The company says its Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform will revolutionize the last mile by building a network of parcel-storage boxes that can be accessed by people, drones, or robots. In a nutshell: Packages are placed into a weatherproof box via drone, robot, driverless carrier, or traditional delivery method—and no one other than the rightful owner can access it.
Although the platform is still in development, the company already offers solutions for business clients looking to secure high-value deliveries and sensitive shipments. The health-care industry is one example: Arrive AI offers secure drone delivery of medical supplies, prescriptions, lab samples, and the like to hospitals and other health-care facilities. The platform provides real-time tracking, chain-of-custody controls, and theft-prevention features. Arrive is conducting short-term deployments between logistics companies and health-care partners now, according to a company spokesperson.
The MaaS solution has a pretty high cool factor. And the common-sense best practices just seem like solid advice. Maybe combining both is the key to a more secure last mile—during peak shipping season and throughout the year as well.