CFTS - How thorough are your
October 10th 2007 Could you be unknowingly breaking the law? According to fork lift industry leaders, many truck users may be doing just that… by confusing ‘inspections’ with legally obligatory Thorough Examinations.
“A variety of ‘inspections’ can be carried out on your fork lift trucks by different people but not all of them fulfil the law’s requirement for Thorough Examination.” So says Brian Tyrer, Chairman of Consolidated Fork Truck Services (CFTS) – the organisation responsible for the materials handling industry’s national accreditation scheme for Thorough Examination. “Service engineers, insurance inspectors and specialist inspection companies might all inspect your equipment and give you an inspection report. Whether that document counts as a Report of Thorough Examination is a vitally important question that the user must ask,” Mr Tyrer continues.
“An inspection as part of a preventative maintenance scheme or scheduled service is not a Thorough Examination. Other inspections carried out by a variety of specialists may, or may not, be Thorough Examinations.”
CFTS advises truck users to ask the inspector whether the inspection is a Thorough Examination in accordance with the LOLER 98 legislation. They should ask to see a copy of the report form – and look for the words ‘Report of Thorough Examination’ on the top of it. If that is not clearly specified in the documentation they should be suspicious of its validity.
Why choose CFTS?
CFTS points out that certainty in complying fully with the law can be assured by obtaining Thorough Examinations through companies accredited to the CFTS Thorough Examination scheme. Those companies are obliged under their stringent procedural code to provide:
- a Report of Thorough Examination complying fully with LOLER 98
- a checklist specifying what has been checked and recording any comments made
- a certificate to keep with the truck’s documents
- a sticker, affixed to the truck, to show the month and year when the next Thorough Examination will be due.
More than 150 companies have now been accredited to deliver CFTS Thorough Examinations – and that number is growing all the time. Wherever you are, there is a CFTS accredited company close to you – a company committed to the CFTS scheme’s standards, ready and willing to give you its dependable advice, expertise and high-quality service.
Crucially, CFTS accredited companies apply the same agreed criteria and procedures nationally. Those criteria and procedures have been developed by the people who know most about fork lift safety – BITA, the FLTA and the HSE. What’s more, this scheme is a dedicated one, designed to address the special needs of fork lifts, and not a general one that attempts to cover many different types of equipment.
“We have heard comments that the CFTS scheme is trying to establish a gold standard for Thorough Examination – as if that was a bad thing,” Brian Tyrer adds. “As far as we are concerned the standard we have set is something to be proud of, and we will continue to insist that there is only one way that a Thorough Examination should be carried out: the right way.”
Would you drive a car without an MOT?
Of course you wouldn’t. We all know that to do so would be dangerous and illegal. Thorough Examination can be thought of as the fork lift truck’s equivalent of a car’s MOT test – but much stricter. And a Report of Thorough Examination is a bit like an MOT certificate.
If you buy a second-hand car, you will undoubtedly demand its current MOT certificate. You should equally insist on receiving a Report of Thorough Examination when you buy a used fork lift. But your responsibility in relation to a fork lift truck goes much further. Even if the truck you operate is brand new, you should make sure it receives its first Thorough Examination by the age of 12 months. After that, it will need to be examined again every 12, 6 or 3 months – depending on the nature of the application, the truck and any attachments it has.
Whether you buy your truck or hire it, long term or short term, you have a responsibility to ensure it has a valid Report of Thorough Examination. Never assume that someone else has taken care of that responsibility.
To take the MOT analogy a little further, you should be aware that Thorough Examination is not a normal part of routine maintenance – just as an MOT test is not part of a car’s service. If you want both, you must arrange for both.
One very big difference between MOT tests and Thorough Examinations is that there is no strict government control of who is allowed to carry out a Thorough Examination, what procedures they should follow and what standards they should meet. With MOTs, you can reasonably expect a test at one garage or test centre to be the same as that obtained from any other… and that each of those tests will ensure you comply fully with the law. By contrast, Thorough Examinations can vary widely from one provider to another – unless, that is, you go to a company accredited to deliver CFTS Thorough Examinations.
Remember, only companies accredited to deliver CFTS Thorough Examinations can use the CFTS Certification Mark – and to be accredited they must agree to abide by the strict CFTS procedural code. So it makes sound sense to look for that mark whenever you are seeking Thorough Examinations.
You could be taking a very big risk if you don’t
What is CFTS?
CFTS is the organisation founded as a joint initiative between materials handling’s two major industry trade associations – the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) and the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA) – to develop and administer that industry’s national accreditation scheme for Thorough Examination. The CFTS scheme was developed in close consultation with the Health and Safety Executive. More articles from Consolidated Fork Truck Services: | 
