BITA holds faith for happier times
November 26th 2009

Optimistic observers are beginning to signal a possible end to recent economic challenges, and if markets are beginning to move again the materials handling industry could be well positioned to benefit. James Clark, Secretary General of the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA), outlines how the Association has been helping its members remain objective about business and focused on safety.

BITA is the UK’s leading trade association for forklift truck manufacturers and suppliers, companies supplying associated components and services, and the materials handling media – including Handling & Storage Solutions. Formed in 1947, BITA currently represents 82 member companies, including suppliers and manufacturers, giving it a broad and informed perspective on the current industrial truck market.

Although BITA provides numerous benefits for members, some of its most important activities are promoting lift-truck safety, lifting industry standards, and monitoring sales. In fact, BITA is the only official source of UK industrial truck sales statistics, which are contributed by – and only made available to – BITA members. Thus no-one has been more aware than BITA of the challenges faced by the market over the past year. Between June 2008 and June 2009 the volume of BITA reported forklift truck orders fell by 34.1 per cent, reflecting the global decline in manufacturing output in this period.

However, challenging conditions often stimulate much-needed flexible responses; and BITA members, who between them account for more than 90% of all new trucks sold in the UK, in many cases supported their customers and increased their revenues from alternative sources to compensate for this decline in new truck sales. These flexible solutions ranged from lease and hire options, installing energy- and cost-saving devices, and refurbished truck sales.

Whether fork lift trucks are new or used, owned or leased, the need to maintain the highest standards of safety remains paramount, particularly in the light of Corporate Manslaughter regulations. One of BITA’s primary roles continues to be the effective promotion of lifttruck safety through providing guidance on machinery standards and operator training. Of course well-trained operators with wellmaintained machinery are also likely to yield their own productivity benefits, so this emphasis on safety is as important to economic wellbeing as it is to driver and workplace safety.

Safety first

Industrial truck users face hazards that even the highest manufacturing technologies cannot eliminate. Safety, however, can be managed in, through compulsory initial operator training and then by the continual reinforcement and application of best practice.

BITA offers a series of pocket-sized safety booklets, whose contents provide practical day-to-day advice in the same way that the Highway Code applies to road usage. The safety booklets also serve as a valuable aide-mémoire for lift-truck users who adopt a continuous ‘on-the-job’ approach to Operator Training.

There are four separate publications addressing every facet of the lifttruck market. All are continually updated to reflect evolution in products, applications and legislation. The list includes:

• the Operator’s Safety Code for Powered Industrial Trucks (the Green Book)

• the Operator’s Safety Code for Rough Terrain Lift Trucks (the Red Book)

• Dos and Don’ts for Users of Industrial and Rough Terrain Lift Trucks (the Blue Book)

• Stability Awareness for Powered Industrial Rough Terrain Lift Trucks (the Yellow Book)

More details of all booklets are available online at www.bita.org.uk/BITASafetyBooklets.htm -- they are also available to purchase online with a 20 per cent discount for members.

Turning best practice into industry norms

A key element in BITA’s portfolio of services is its Technical Policy Committee (TPC), which establishes and promotes BITA’s technical policies while also alerting manufacturers and users to the requirements and consequences of new standards.

The TPC distils key points and actions required by new standards both in regular executive briefings provided to BITA members, and in the frequently updated BITA Guidance Notes (available on the BITA website at www.bita.org.uk/BITAGuidanceNotes.htm).

BITA works in partnership with a whole host of organisations and regulatory bodies, including:

• the British Standards Institution, BSI

• the European Committee for Standardisation, CEN

• the International Standards Organisation, ISO

• the Health & Safety Executive, HSE

• the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC

Additionally through its membership of the British Materials Handling Federation, BITA is a stakeholder in the Federation Européenne de la Manutention, European manufacturers' association of materials handling, lifting and storage equipment.

Interpreting legislation

BITA’s TPC has always played a key role in helping industrial truck manufacturers (and users) navigate their way through complex European regulations, and in recent months have been particularly engaged with the new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, effective from December 29 2009 and enacted in UK law under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008.

Since it is designed to control CE marking of machinery by ensuring a common policy of safety and supply across the European Economic Area (EEA), the Machinery Directive is essentially good news for manufacturers, because it means they will have a single harmonised standard to apply on their products that may help simplify their construction design risk assessments. However there are vital legal points to consider and BITA’s valuable interpretation of the complexities is already being recognised by members.

A key campaign for BITA in 2009 will promote the awareness of safety and best practice in the use of telehandlers.

Showing our mettle

The International Materials Handling Exhibition (IMHX), owned jointly by BITA and Quartz Publishing & Exhibitions, is the UK’s premier event for the logistics, materials handling and storage industries.

IMHX 2007 was a resounding success, with over 350 exhibitors and over 19,000 visitors. But now attention is turning to IMHX 2010, which is due to take place from 16 to 19 November 2009 at the NEC Birmingham. Although traditionally IMHX has been a spring show, a poll of exhibitors fully supported moving the event to November, giving more time for an economic recovery to have manifested itself and thus assure the most successful possible event.

And finally…

When the work is done, BITA remembers the vital social aspect to any industry, and is renowned for two essential fixtures in the materials handling calendar: the BITA Ball and the BITA Golf Day. These disprove the adage that business cannot mix with pleasure!

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