Tips for Keeping Warehouses Compliant with OSHA

The warehouse boom has driven a surge in related employment, with the warehouse workforce jumping from 786,000 employees in 2015 to more than 1.8 million in 2025. But the influx of inexperienced workers and high employee turnover have exacerbated common safety challenges. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows injury and illness rates for warehousing and distribution centers are higher than in private industry overall, and in some sectors, more than twice the rate of private industry.

In response, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a national emphasis program (NEP) in July 2023 to reduce and prevent workplace hazards in warehousing and distribution center operations. This three-year program also includes mail and postal processing, local delivery and high-risk retail establishments. The goal is to help operations make improvements to reduce risk of injury and lost days by conducting comprehensive safety inspections focused on hazards related to industrial vehicle operations, material handling and storage, and more.

The program is nationwide; however, state-level agencies can either adopt the federal NEP or adopt or adapt their own state emphasis plan (SEP) that meets the federal OSHA program requirements and is at least as effective as the NEP in protecting workers and preventing work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths. Warehouse selection for inspection can vary for state plans, but the federal program determines site selection and scheduling through a targeting system.

What Compliance Officers Look For

If your site is selected for inspection, here’s what to expect. Inspection procedures say that safety officers must review site-level injury and illness records. Then, they must complete an evaluation of potential hazards throughout the facility. These can include:

·        Powered industrial truck (PIT) operations,

·        Material handling and storage,

·        Walking-working surfaces,

·        Means of egress,

·        Fire protection,

·        Heat hazards,

·        Ergonomic hazards.

Inspections for retail establishments will focus on storage and loading areas, but may be expanded in scope if evidence shows that violations exist in other areas. If heat and ergonomic violations are found, a health officer may be brought in to conduct a health inspection.

On-site Consultations with No Cost and No Risk of Citations

All states and territories, whether they operate under federal OSHA or an OSHA-approved state plan, offer on-site consultations that can help businesses identify areas of weakness and provide suggestions to improve health and safety. These consultations are available at no cost and with no risk of citations. The establishment simply agrees to correct the problem, records from the consultation are not shared with the inspection department, and citations are not issued for any would-be violations the consultant identifies.

Depending on the concerns of the operation, the consultant can evaluate the entire facility or just one area or challenge, then discuss recommendations. This can be enormously valuable to operations because in 2024 a willful violation citation started around $160,000 for a single citation. If not willful, a citation could still be considered serious and start at about $16,000.

Lift truck safety can be a particularly important focus as warehouses prepare for inspections, due to the large number of lift trucks in use. Each million square feet of warehouse space requires about 80 to 100 lift trucks.

How Facilities Can Prepare: Lift Truck Safety

Lift truck safety is multi-faceted, site-specific and requires a comprehensive approach. Warehouses can be busy and noisy, and lift truck operators must maneuver and place loads at significant heights and navigate tight spaces and congestion. Examples of types of accidents involving forklifts and some of the possible causes or contributing factors include:

Forklift tip-overs—turning too quickly; uneven or unbalanced loads; abrupt mast movement; turning on an incline; and traveling with the load elevated or on uneven surfaces.

Accidents involving pedestrians—undisciplined or untrained workforce; insufficient traffic separation between forklifts and pedestrians; improper use of warning signs, traffic controls and signals; pedestrian and operator inattention; and not looking in the direction of travel.

Falling loads—lack of appropriate load backrest for the loads in question; damaged overhead guard; damaged forks or attachments; moving, lifting or tilting the mast too quickly; and improper load construction, including off-center, damaged and unsecured goods.

Personnel falling from forks or personnel platforms—absence of dedicated aerial lifts; unapproved, unattended, or unrestrained lifting platforms; and prioritizing speed and convenience over safety.

Impacts with other equipment or objects—operating too closely to other forklifts in front of or around the trucks; traveling too fast for the warehouse layout; traveling without a full field of vision or not looking in the direction of travel.

Studies show that greater operator training and retraining on proper forklift operation could reduce accidents by as much as 70%. OSHA has standards and solutions for common industry hazards, including those for lift truck operation. Most importantly, though, implementing a forklift and pedestrian training program is likely the single most effective means of reducing forklift accidents.

Leveraging Technology for Forklift Safety

Warehouses seeking additional support can also evaluate opportunities to leverage technology and support from operator training or fleet management professionals. Lift truck technologies offer varying types and degrees of support for managers or operators, including providing a data-based view of problem areas or operating practices that require attention. They can also help enhance situational awareness and even automatically reinforce operating best practices.

Every warehouse is unique. In addition to proper training, technology can offer an additional layer of support for many OSHA directives for forklift operation, maintenance, repair and charging, such as:

OSHA requirement: Only trained and certified workers may operate a forklift. Operators must be trained on the type of vehicle in use and on workplace conditions. Before operating the vehicle, examine it for hazardous conditions which would make it unsafe to operate.

·        Operator access controls can use key cards to limit equipment access to only operators with the proper licensing and training. Digital safety checklists can also disable truck use until the operator has completed the standard OSHA pre-shift check or any other specific examinations.

OSHA requirement: Never exceed the rated load and ensure it is stable and balanced.

·        Operator assist technology with overload arrest can restrict lift functionality when an operator attempts to lift a load that exceeds the truck’s rated capacity. Additionally, advanced dynamic stability features can automatically adjust lift and lower speeds, mast height, tilt range, tilt speed and reach extension speed to minimize the potential for the handling of a load to upset lift truck stability.

OSHA requirement: Make sure you have proper clearance when raising, loading and operating the vehicle.

·        Operator assist technology with real-time location sensing capabilities like fork height restriction can proactively alert operators of low overhead clearance by limiting truck travel and mast lifting speed until the operator has lowered the forks beneath the designated threshold or the truck exits the height-restricted zone. Some systems can detect obstacles and support operator awareness by automatically and noticeably reducing the speed of the lift truck.

OSHA requirement: Follow safe procedures for picking up, putting down and stacking loads.

·        Lift/lower soft stop technology can control lift and lower acceleration and deceleration to avoid fragile products being “slammed” onto the floor. Mast lift and lower control solutions can manage mast speed to avoid raising and lowering loads too quickly and causing the mast to sway. Tilt speed and range control solutions help operators limit mast tilt speed and range when a load is in an unfavorable position, and tilt soft stop can help avoid sharp stops that could upset load and truck stability.

OSHA requirement: Watch for pedestrians and observe the speed limit.

·        Operator assist technologies with object detection capability can reduce travel speed when a pedestrian or other equipment is detected in the path of travel. Proximity detection can detect a pedestrian equipped with an ultrawideband badge, even if they are obscured from the operator’s view.

OSHA requirement: Slow down in congested areas and those with slippery surfaces.

·        Operator assist technology with real-time location sensing capabilities can allow facilities to set speed control zones that proactively limit travel speed in specific locations, such as heavily populated areas or crosswalks.

Inspections for the warehouse safety NEP have been underway since October 2023. As your operation prepares for inspection and takes steps to support safety, consider consulting the OSHA resource for your state.