29 CFR 1910.178, in plain English
OSHA forklift inspection requirements
What the federal rule for powered industrial trucks says about examining them, taking them out of service, and training the people who drive them — with the rule’s exact words, so you can check every line against the source.
The short version
- Examine every truck before it is used, at least once a day.
- If trucks run around the clock, examine them after every shift.
- A truck that is not safe comes out of service until it is repaired.
- The daily examination does not have to be written down. Operator training does.
- Evaluate every operator at least once every three years.
Which trucks it covers
“This section contains safety requirements relating to fire protection, design, maintenance, and use of fork trucks, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks, and other specialized industrial trucks powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines.”
In practice that is sit-down and stand-up forklifts, reach trucks, order pickers, tow tractors and powered pallet jacks — electric, propane, diesel or gas. A hand pallet jack with no motor is not a powered industrial truck.
How often to examine a truck
“Industrial trucks shall be examined before being placed in service, and shall not be placed in service if the examination shows any condition adversely affecting the safety of the vehicle. Such examination shall be made at least daily. Where industrial trucks are used on a round-the-clock basis, they shall be examined after each shift. Defects when found shall be immediately reported and corrected.”
So: once a day, before the truck goes to work. A site that runs the same truck on two or three shifts examines it after each one, because the next driver inherits whatever the last one did to it. Many companies have every operator check the truck at the start of their own shift whatever the schedule, which covers both cases.
What to check
The standard does not list the items. The truck’s operator manual is the starting point, and the usual pre-shift checks are well established: a walk-around with the key off — forks, chains, mast, tires, leaks, the data plate, and the propane tank or battery — then a functional check with it running — horn, lights, brakes, steering, and the lift and tilt controls.
Our free forklift inspection checklist lists every standard item with what to look for, free to print.
When something fails
“If at any time a powered industrial truck is found to be in need of repair, defective, or in any way unsafe, the truck shall be taken out of service until it has been restored to safe operating condition.”
“Any power-operated industrial truck not in safe operating condition shall be removed from service. All repairs shall be made by authorized personnel.”
The operator who finds the problem reports it straight away, the truck is tagged out and parked, and it stays out until someone authorized has repaired it. “Finish the shift and mention it later” is exactly what the rule rules out.
Do you have to keep records?
For the daily examination, no. Section 1910.178 requires the examination; it does not require you to write it down. A record is still how you prove the examination happened, which is the part that matters when an OSHA inspector, an insurer or a lawyer asks after an incident. An examination nobody can show was done is hard to tell apart from one that was not.
For operator training, yes.
“The employer shall certify that each operator has been trained and evaluated as required by this paragraph (l). The certification shall include the name of the operator, the date of the training, the date of the evaluation, and the identity of the person(s) performing the training or evaluation.”
Operator training and evaluation
“The employer shall ensure that each powered industrial truck operator is competent to operate a powered industrial truck safely, as demonstrated by the successful completion of the training and evaluation specified in this paragraph (l).”
“An evaluation of each powered industrial truck operator’s performance shall be conducted at least once every three years.”
Refresher training is due sooner than that in any of these cases, listed in 1910.178(l)(4)(ii):
- “The operator has been observed to operate the vehicle in an unsafe manner”
- “The operator has been involved in an accident or near-miss incident”
- “The operator has received an evaluation that reveals that the operator is not operating the truck safely”
- “The operator is assigned to drive a different type of truck”
- “A condition in the workplace changes in a manner that could affect safe operation of the truck”
The source
The full standard is 29 CFR 1910.178, Powered Industrial Trucks, on osha.gov. Quotations on this page are copied from it. This page explains the rule; it is not legal advice, and where your state runs its own OSHA plan, its rules can go further than the federal one.