By Adam R. Young, A. Scott Hecker, Patrick D. Joyce, Brent I. Clark, and Craig B. Simonsen

Seyfarth Synopsis: Powered Industrial Trucks (forklifts) are the focus of a new OSHA Regional Emphasis Program (REP). The program covers Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota—the federal-OSHA states in Region 8.

As we noted in a previous blog, Another Year In The Books – OSHA’s Top Ten Safety Violations for Fiscal Year 2022, forklifts came in at number 7! As we previously blogged, OSHA Region 3 issued a Regional Emphasis Program for Warehousing and Logistics on August 3, 2022 that included forklifts as one of the key inspection topics.

Following Region 3, on August 22, 2022, Region 8 issued a Regional Emphasis Program for inspections of employers utilizing forklifts. Region 8 started REP inspections on November 23, following a three-month education effort. This Region 8 REP reflected OSHA’s consistently high number of forklift inspections and forklift-related citations

OSHA uses national and regional emphasis programs to target aggressive enforcement efforts against specific industries and workplace hazards. Federal OSHA continues to shift enforcement towards warehousing, logistics, and e-commerce. In discussing its recent Region 3 emphasis program on warehousing and logistics, OSHA explained that “with the rapid growth of e-commerce, the warehousing industry has significantly expanded.” The further augmentation of OSHA’s forklifts REPs continue this enforcement re-orientation.

Nearly all OSHA regions have some form of REP in place with respect to forklift operations:

As always, for more information on this or any related Workplace Safety or Environmental topic, please contact the authors, your Seyfarth attorney, or any member of the Workplace Safety and Health (OSHA/MSHA) Team.