Toyota Forklifts lead the industry with innovative designs and top-of-the-line customer support. At Toyota, safety comes standard, and we spend time each day developing ways to keep everyone in your facility protected, healthy, and productive. We start with the top safety concerns and ask, “what can we do to improve our engineering to help make people safer?” It’s part of our culture of continuous improvement. We’re always pushing ourselves toward what next. And it’s what led us to develop the best safety features in the industry.

Innovative Forklift Safety Features: System of Active Stability and Active Mast Control

Toyota’s forward-thinking engineering is what helps make Toyota Forklifts some of the safest forklifts on the market. Asking the tough questions, we found that tip-overs and falling loads were some of the most common causes of forklift accidents. So Toyota engineers went to work, and, in 1999, introduced the System Active of Stability, which comes standard on most Toyota forklifts. In conjunction with Active Mast Control, Toyota engineering is a must for the most safety-conscious operations managers.

• System of Active Stability (SAS): The SAS is unique to Toyota forklifts. While many stability systems are reactive, Toyota’s SAS is a proactive system that takes approximately 3,000 readings per second to ensure operator safety. Because of this proactive approach, SAS recognizes when factors could put the forklift at risk and automatically stabilizes the lift using the innovative swing-lock cylinder to prevent a tipover.
• Active Mast Function Control (AMC): AMC is also unique to Toyota forklifts. This system recognizes dangerous tilt speeds when lifting payloads and slows the speed of the mast to prevent tipovers.

Innovative Forklift Safety Features: Other Toyota-Engineered Safety Features

But Toyota’s safety innovation does not stop at these unique features. We employ safety-first thinking in all of our manufacturing, developing the best solutions for features that seem common. The unique-Toyota approach? Safety always in manufacturing:

• Orange Forks: It seems so simple, but optional orange forks on our lifts prevent accidents and loss of products by assisting visibility during placement. Accurate fork placement helps prevent against spilled payloads that can be dangerous for forklift operators and other associates.
• Horn: All forklifts are required to come installed with a functioning horn.
• Rear Horn with Grip Assist: Toyota offers an add-on horn placed behind the operator on the overhead guard support leg. This ergonomic design allows operators to honk while they are turned and viewing the workspace behind the forklift.
• Seatbelt: Toyota forklifts come standard with a seatbelt. We also offer orange seatbelt upgrades to increase visibility and ensure proper usage of this highly-important safety feature.
• Overhead Guard: This safety feature protects operators from falling objects. The single component welded construction improves rigidity and safety while design considerations such as the 45 degree angle of the front cross beam improves visibility for operators moving pallets at height.

Making the Best Use of Forklift Safety Features: Using a Safety Checklist

These innovations in engineering are excellent and can lead to increased safety in your facility. But the best way to make sure your forklift is in optimal working condition is to use a forklift safety checklist as part of your daily walk around on your forklift. Here’s one example of those features on your Toyota Forklift that would benefit from routine checks.

Making the Best Use of Forklift Safety Features: Fork Safety Best Practices

All Toyota forklifts are engineered with safety in mind. That includes every part of the forklift, including one of the most important parts: the forks. But no matter how well a forklifts is engineered, using them appropriately is the responsibility of the operator. The forks can represent a problem area if used inappropriately. Be sure to regularly use a fork caliper to inspect the forks and employ the following best practices:

• Low and slow. Anytime you’re moving, keep your forks no more than six inches off the ground and move slowly through the warehouse. Be careful not to drag your forks on the ground, however, because that can shorten the lifespan of your forks.
• Carefully maintain your forks. Make it a habit to check your forks every during every inspection and maintenance cycle, as designated in your operator’s manual. If your forks appear to be bent, it’s time to replace them.
• Stick with your load capacity. Don’t ever try to push your load capacity. Remember, your forks are only made to lift as much as your forklift says they are and trying to lift more could result in dropping a load.
• Only use your forks to lift. Your forks are made to lift and that’s it, so don’t try to push things or pry things open with them. Using your forks irresponsibly could cause damage making them vulnerable to dropping loads.

You’ve got enough paper in your life. Paper you send to suppliers. Paper you send to customers. Monitoring your forklift usage and efficiency shouldn’t require additional stacks of paper. A Vehicle Management System (VMS), like the Toyota T-Matics option can help eliminate paper, keep you organized, and save a few trees in the process. Here are a few ways that you can use T-Matics to go paperless.

Certification and License Expiration Tracking with T-Matics:

Letting licenses and certifications lapse can be a major problem. If you’re tracking these expirations on paper, in a log, or relying on your own or someone else’s memory, you’re setting yourself up to fail. T-Matics COMMAND allows users to enter a date of expiration on the forklift certification of an operator. COMMAND alerts you when it’s time for renewed licensing and training. You can make use of this ability with both established operators and short-term temps. Also, because T-Matics monitors things like impacts, it can help you identify when re-training and certification is necessary.

Operator Historical Data:

The paper associated with tracking operator successes and missteps can be cumbersome, and often falls through the cracks. As an operator, it can be easy to get frustrated if there isn’t a clear measure of how good you really are at your job that is clearly established in writing. As a manager, keeping track of successes is difficult, especially since so much time can be spent on drawing up paperwork to document accidents and impacts.

With a VMS, both of these pain points are eliminated, making everyone happy with their work environment. If you’re a successful operator, your safe practices and focused approach to your job are documented by clear data that illustrates your forklift usage efficiency and lack of impacts on the lift. If you’re a manager, you can reward your best operators, understand who will give you the best ROI during their shifts, and identify those associates who need to shape up in terms of usage and practice.

Preventative Maintenance Made Easy and Efficient:

Trying to schedule preventive maintenance on paper is a hard task. What if you miss the date on your calendar? Worse, what if you haven’t used the lift as much as you expected when that date comes and you don’t need maintenance yet? Or what if you’ve used it more, and need maintenance before the scheduled date?

With T-Matics, computer software keeps track of time and hour usage. It then relays an automatic request for scheduled maintenance to your local Toyota dealer. No more paper scheduling, lengthy phone calls discussing timing, or missteps in maintenance intervals. Using this function can be an important step in maintaining your lifts’ uptime.

Daily Equipment Checklist:

Paper checklists are a mess to file. It’s annoying to find a hard surface to write on. And time is wasted trying to find the right office supplies to make it happen. A VMS like Toyota’s T-Matics makes this system automated and files all of these reports electronically. No more paper. Simple.

I like that VMS systems offer all of these great advantages for your company when used effectively. But it also doesn’t hurt that you can get the reputation of an environmentally conscience company with a clear understanding of your responsibility to the planet. That’s a powerful message for a whole lot of clients and customers. Going paperless with T-Matics helps you win and keep on winning.

Written by:  Linley Kullman, Telematics Support Administrator, Toyota Material Handling, USA