Forklift inspections
One register for powered industrial truck examinations: the check completed at the truck, the defect attached to it, and a due list that follows how each truck is actually used.
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The interval is per shift, not per day, when the truck runs round the clock
This is the part most digital checklists get wrong, because they model the check as a daily task. 29 CFR 1910.178(q)(7) requires that industrial trucks be examined before being placed in service and that "such examination shall be made at least daily" - but the same paragraph continues: "Where industrial trucks are used on a round-the-clock basis, they shall be examined after each shift." The obligation therefore follows how the truck is used, not the date. A truck on three shifts is examined three times, by three different operators, and each of those examinations is the one that puts it into service for that shift. A system that shows a single green tick for the day is describing a different requirement to the one in the standard.
- Practical consequence: Trucks on different shift patterns need different schedules in the same register, and the due list has to reset per shift rather than per calendar day.
- What we do not do: MapTrack holds the schedule you set and the result your operator records. It does not determine your shift pattern or certify that an examination met the standard.
OSHA requires the examination, not the paperwork - keep it anyway
It is worth being precise about this, because a great deal of published guidance asserts a recordkeeping requirement that 1910.178 does not contain. The standard requires that the examination be made, and that a truck showing any condition adversely affecting its safety is not placed in service. It does not require you to create or retain a written record of each daily examination. The reason to keep one is evidentiary rather than regulatory: an examination you cannot evidence is hard to distinguish, after the fact, from one that did not happen. That distinction matters most in exactly the situation where you least want an argument about it - after an incident, or when a defect that was reported turns out not to have been corrected. Holding the record on the truck makes the sequence provable: what was found, when, by whom, and what happened next.
The problem
The daily forklift check is one of the most consistently completed and most poorly evidenced tasks on a site. The examination usually happens. What fails is everything after it: the pad lives in the cab until it is full, then it goes in a drawer; a defect gets mentioned verbally to a supervisor who is dealing with something else; and the truck that failed on Friday is back in service on Monday because nothing physically stopped it. When an inspector or an incident investigator asks to see the last thirty days for one truck, the honest answer is often that the paper exists somewhere but cannot be produced for that machine on that date.
How MapTrack addresses it
MapTrack holds the examination on the truck itself. Each powered industrial truck carries its own check history, its defects, its photos and its next-due status, so the record is a property of the machine rather than a pad that belongs to whoever had it last. Operators scan the label on the truck and complete the check where they are standing. A fail stays visible on that truck until a later pass sits above it, so the next person who scans it sees the condition rather than an empty tag. Because the interval follows usage rather than the calendar, trucks running round-the-clock can carry a per-shift schedule alongside single-shift trucks on a daily one, in the same list.
How it works
- 1
Get the trucks into the register
Add each powered industrial truck as an asset with its identifier, site and shift pattern. Bulk import if you are starting from a spreadsheet or a fleet list.
- 2
Label the truck
Put a QR or barcode label where the operator will actually scan it. The check happens at the machine, so the record should open there too.
- 3
Complete the examination at the truck
Operators run the check on a phone at shift start, photographing anything found. The result attaches to that truck, not to a pad.
- 4
Work the due list by shift, not by memory
Filter by next due and site to see which trucks have not been examined this shift, before they are driven.
What the register holds for each truck
Each of these sits on the truck, so the machine and its examination history stay together.
Schedule that follows usage
Per-shift for round-the-clock trucks, daily for single-shift ones, in one list rather than two systems.
Results, defects and photos
Pass, fail, date and operator in sequence, with a photo of what was found. A fail stays visible until a later pass sits above it.
Out-of-service status on the machine
The next person who scans the truck sees its condition, instead of finding an empty tag and guessing.
Operator evaluation dates
The three-yearly operator evaluation under 1910.178(l)(4)(iii) held next to the trucks each operator is qualified on.
Why teams move the forklift check off a pad
The due list resets per shift
A truck running round the clock is examined after each shift, so the list has to know about shifts rather than dates.
Scan at the truck
The check happens at the machine at shift start. Opening the record by scanning it is the difference between doing it now and doing it later.
A fail is visible on the machine
The condition travels with the truck, so a defect reported on Friday is still visible to the operator on Monday.
Same register as your other checks
Pre-starts, lifting gear, fire equipment and calibration run on the same system rather than four separate ones.
Other recurring checks run on the same register
The instruments this recordkeeping sits under
The examination frequency, the out-of-service rule and the operator evaluation interval are set by the instruments below, not by MapTrack. We support the recordkeeping; the examination and the compliance judgement remain yours.
Check the current source
MapTrack keeps the records these standards ask you to keep. It does not certify your work or make you compliant, and the current text of each instrument is the authority.
Every truck examined before it is placed in service
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