Don't Depend on Technology to Keep Your Warehouse Safe: Podcast

This episode of Supply Chain Insider, part of the Great Question podcast series, explores the significance of National Forklift Safety Day, highlighting industry leaders' insights on safety technologies, certification standards, and proactive safety measures in warehouses and industrial settings. We'll review comments made at the NFSD 2026 event in Washington, DC, by David Keeling, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health and the head of OSHA, and Carl Modesette, director of the Americas Design Center at forklift manufacturer Logisnext Americas.

We'll also revisit a recent MH&L article from ENEROC USA's Max Khabur: Forklift Battery Certification Standards: What Matters Most for Safety?

Click on the player below to hear the full podcast.

Podcast Transcript Excerpt:

For the past 13 years, the second Tuesday in June has been recognized in the material handling and industrial safety worlds as National Forklift Safety Day. In fact, the very first NFSD was launched with Material Handling & Logistics as the founding media partner, when my then-colleague Tom Andel worked with the Industrial Truck Association to publicize and promote the event. Both Tom and I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC, to participate in the Forklift Safety Days events, which have featured thought leaders from the major forklift OEMs, OSHA directors, and occasionally members of Congress knowledgeable about workplace safety.

This year, David Keeling, recently installed as the director of OSHA, made his debut at Forklift Safety Day. Keeling’s background includes stints at two major material handling and logistics-focused companies, namely UPS, where he began his career, rising through the ranks to become vice president of global health and safety, and then at retail giant Amazon, where he served as director of global transportation safety. So it’s safe to say (no pun intended) that director Keeling knows his way around warehouses and loading docks and is no stranger to the need for forklift safety.

Keeling opened by observing that OSHA has historically been known primarily as an enforcement agency, but that they’d also like to be in the solutions business and in the abatement business as well. “We want to collaborate and engage with industry,” he stressed. When it comes to workplace safety, whether it’s in the warehouse, in a manufacturing plant, in the yard or on the road, it’s better for companies to be preventive and proactive rather than reactive. One of the ways OSHA plans to help companies is to encourage the adoption of safety technologies – such as pedestrian detection cameras and sensors, collision avoidance systems, and telematics. These technologies, Keeling said, can be a game changer when it comes to enhancing forklift safety.

Carl Modesette, director of the Americas Design Center at forklift manufacturer Logisnext Americas, next offered a look at the size and reach of the forklift industry. According to a study conducted by Oxford Economics, more than 4.5 million forklift operators are employed in the US alone, and when you factor in pedestrians and other people who come within range of a forklift, potentially tens of millions of people come in close contact with forklifts every day.

The good news, Modesette pointed out, citing OSHA research, is that proper forklift operating training can reduce operational errors by up to 70%. And OSHA believes that accidents can be reduced by about the same percentage. For that to happen, though, safety has to be a continuous, iterative process. Modesette noted that safety is holistic, dependent on the interrelationship between several key functions: OEM manufacturers, employers, employees, statutes and standards, service and maintenance providers, and above all, he emphasized, YOU. He cited an ANSI/ITSDF standard that says, unambiguously, “Safe operation [of a forklift] is the responsibility of the operator.”

Nevertheless, robust and comprehensive training is necessary, he said, to ensure the operator is fully aware of and skilled in operating the vehicle.