Forklift Trucks in Public Areas

There have been a number of serious incidents in recent years involving third parties (ie customers and delivery drivers etc) being injured by mobile equipment, particularly forklift trucks. The owners/operator’s Public Liability Insurance policy may not generally cover the cost of resulting claims where the equipment should have been registered hence a claim made on the Compulsory Third Party Insurance Policy (CTP) under the Motor Accidents Act or similar.

Legislation varies in each State and has recently been updated in some to broaden the definition of a public road. Generally, any vehicle or mobile plant (including forklifts, sweepers, “welcome wagons”, trolley tractors & trailers etc) operated in a publicly accessible area (ie car parks, loading docks, driveways, footpaths etc) should have appropriate registration and CTP. This is usually known as Conditional or Restricted Use Registration.

You should ensure that all vehicles, including plant operated by contrcators, are appropriately registered when operating on your site. All operators must have appropriate licenses and a record of this should be kept on file.

Additional controls should be in place, particularly for forklifts, this could include speed governors, reversing alarms, flashing amber lights, warning signage, spotters, mirrors (on and off vehicles), restricting usage to outside of trading hours and barricading of operating areas.

The safe working height of all entrances used by the forklift should be clearly indicated in accordance with Australian Standards.

Tagged as: Car Parks, equipment, Public Liability, Retail Risk