• OSHA requires that all PITs comply with the ANSI standard for safety.

The most basic provision in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Powered Industrial Truck (PIT) standard is that equipment must be designed to meet certain safety standards. In doing this, OSHA requires that all new or acquired PIT equipment comply with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) B56.1-1969, Safety Standard for Powered Industrial Trucks.

The ANSI standard has undergone several revisions — the most current being ANSI/ITSDF B56.1-2020, Safety Standard for Low Lift and High Lift Trucks — so most equipment purchased will likely be made to a newer version of ANSI B56.1 than the one from 1969. As a historical note, on February 16, 2022, OSHA proposed to modernize the design and construction requirements for its PITs standard to add reference to the latest ANSI/ITSDF design and construction standards. These include ANSI/ITSDF B56.1-2020, B56.5-2019, and B56.6-2021. PIT manufacturers and users will want to watch for the issuance of a final rule.

Employers must pay particular attention with the rapid changes in technology for safety devices and attachments for forklifts and other PITs:

• Barcode scanners and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology so employers can control who operates and inspects the equipment,
• GPS systems so employers can track equipment,
• Attachments to lift anything from a drum to carpet roll,
• QR codes that can link to training videos right from a smartphone, and
• Lights and alarms.

As long as equipment comes with these devices already installed by the manufacturer, there is usually no issue in regard to OSHA accepting the design, even though these devices may not have been available when the original OSHA standard was written.