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National Forklift Safety Day | 9 June

What if the biggest forklift risk in your operation is the one no one sees?

Most serious forklift incidents don’t happen because the rules are flawed, or the operator is reckless. They happen because something – or someone – slipped out of sight at the worst possible moment. Powerfleet helps safety leaders close those blind spots before they cost a life.
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The forklift risks you can’t see
A 30-minute conversation on the forklift safety risks that fall outside most programs – and what safety leaders are doing about them.
Speakers:
Danial Gibson

Danial Gibson

Powerfleet
Kane Lovelace

Kane Lovelace

Eaton

Three risks every forklift safety leader is still carrying

Forklift safety has improved dramatically over recent decades. Training is sharper, standards stricter, and compliance is documented – yet serious incidents continue to occur in operations where every box on the safety checklist is checked.

That’s because incidents are rarely a single dramatic failure. They’re the quiet buildup of small, unchallenged risks: a walkway that became a shortcut, an alarm everyone learned to ignore, a near-miss no one logged. The gap between safe and unsafe operations isn’t about effort anymore; it’s about visibility.

Compliance ≠ safety

A signed-off pre-use check doesn’t prove the check was actually performed. A trained operator isn’t always the one driving the truck. Compliance shows that a process exists. It doesn’t prove it’s being followed every shift.

Training ≠ visibility

Operators are taught to look, slow, and signal. But no human can see into a blind spot, around a stack, or behind a column in time to react. Training prepares people for the risks they can see; it does nothing about the ones they can’t.

Near-misses ≠ noise

Most facilities log only what gets reported, and most near-misses never do. That means the data driving safety decisions is consistently missing the moments that matter most – the ones that came closest to becoming the incident.

Two systems. One layer of visibility your team doesn’t currently have.

Powerfleet’s forklift safety solutions are built on a single principle: the best time to prevent an incident is before it happens. Forklift Gateway and Pedestrian Proximity Detection close the two visibility gaps behind most serious forklift incidents: visibility into who is operating the vehicle and who is in its path.

Forklift Gateway
Forklift Gateway controls who can start each truck through verified operator ID, enforces pre-use safety checks before the vehicle moves, and uses machine-learning sensors to detect impacts the moment they happen. Every event feeds into Unity, so safety leaders see what’s actually happening on the floor, not just what’s recorded.
Pedestrian Proximity Detection (PPD)
PPD uses on-vehicle AI cameras to detect people and other vehicles in the forklift’s path, with no wearables, tags, or floor infrastructure required. When proximity thresholds are breached, PPD alerts the operator and the pedestrian, captures the event, and adds it to your near-miss data so risk patterns become visible before they become incidents.

70%

average reduction in on-site risks and accidents across Powerfleet customer operations

Together, Forklift Gateway and PPD shift forklift safety from reactive to real-time, and from relying on the operator’s eyes alone to a system that watches with them.

National Forklift Safety Day

Common risks on the warehouse floor

Eight hazards are sitting in plain sight in the scene below. Some need technology to solve. Others just need someone to notice. Scroll down to take each one in turn — the risk, and what prevents it.

Risk 01

Forklift operator can't see the pedestrian ahead

AI cameras detect pedestrians in real time and trigger an audible alert in the cab. The truck can also be set to slow down automatically.

Risk 02

Load is blocking the operator's forward view

AI cameras with a 120° field of view scan around the truck. An audible alert fires in the cab the moment a pedestrian enters its path.

Risk 03

Unauthorized driver on the forklift

Access control ensures only trained, authorized drivers can start the truck, and only after completing a pre-shift safety check.

Risk 04

Forklift moving too fast in a pedestrian area

Geofenced zones automatically cap truck speed wherever pedestrians work. The limit is enforced by the system, not the operator.

Risk 05

A collision happened - nobody reported it

Onboard sensors detect impacts the moment they happen and trigger event-based video recording. The truck locks until a supervisor reviews it.

Risk 06

Spill on the floor

Slip hazard for pedestrians, traction loss for trucks. Quick clean-up, clear warning signs, and routine floor-walks are basics no technology can replace.

Risk 07

Loose debris and packaging

Trips workers and obstructs trucks. End-of-shift housekeeping and basic floor discipline prevent buildup before someone gets hurt.

Risk 08

Damaged or overloaded racking

Bowing shelves and leaning stock are signs of structural failure waiting to happen. Routine racking inspections catch this before anything collapses.

See Forklift Gateway and PPD up close

In this short walkthrough, a Powerfleet specialist takes you up close to the Forklift Gateway and PPD hardware. The clearest way to understand what they do is to see them.

What safety leaders need to learn

In April 2026, Powerfleet hosted a panel at The Health & Safety Event in Birmingham, bringing together an incident survivor, a materials handling safety advisor, and our technology lead to examine what really goes wrong in workplaces and what organizations can do about it.

Honest, practical, and worth 40 minutes of any safety leader’s time.

The forklift safety gap – and how to close it

A conversation with Kane Lovelace (EHS Safety Leader, Eaton) and Danial Gibson (Director of Solution Consulting, Powerfleet) on the forklift safety risks that fall outside most programs – and what safety leaders are doing about them.
Danial Gibson

Danial Gibson

Powerfleet
Kane Lovelace

Kane Lovelace

Eaton
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See it in your own operation

Book a 30-minute walkthrough with a Powerfleet specialist. We’ll show you where forklift risk is hiding in your facility and how Forklift Gateway and PPD close the gap.
Book a Demo