Forklift Awareness for Warehouse Teams

Who is this course for?

It is for anyone who works around forklifts but does not operate one: warehouse and distribution staff, packhouse workers, yard and loading-dock teams, new starters at induction, and visitors or contractors on foot. It is awareness training, not the NZQA forklift operator licence.

It suits a single new starter or a whole site completing a refresher. No prior knowledge is needed and there is nothing to install.

What the course covers

Seven short lessons, one clear goal: stay safe around forklifts.

Where New Zealand law leaves a gap, and why this course exists

If you have ever tried to find the rule that says your warehouse staff on foot need forklift training, you will not find one. That is not an oversight on your part. It is a genuine gap in the guidance, and it is worth understanding before you decide what your site needs.

WorkSafe's Approved Code of Practice for forklifts is titled Training operators and instructors of powered industrial lift trucks. The clue is in the name. It sets out a standard of training for the people driving the machine, and covers common causes of accidents, forklift maintenance, instructor registration and training programmes. WorkSafe itself notes the document has not been updated to reflect the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

So the operator is covered. The person walking past the racking with a scanner in their hand is not mentioned anywhere.

Your duty does not stop at the operator. The primary duty of care under HSWA 2015 is owed to all workers, and it asks you to eliminate risk so far as is reasonably practicable, or minimise it where you cannot. A forklift moving through a space shared with people on foot is one risk with two groups exposed to it. Training one group and not the other is a control with a hole in it.

What WorkSafe has actually said about it

In 2017, after seven workplace deaths involving moving machinery in roughly eight weeks and sixteen further serious incidents, WorkSafe went public on forklifts specifically. Two things from that intervention are still the most useful summary of what inspectors look for.

The first is what they found missing. Inspections turned up sites with no exclusion of workers from the areas where forklifts were operating at all. Not inadequate separation. None.

The second is what they said about the most common response to that finding. WorkSafe's phrasing was that it is not good enough to put some lines of paint on the ground and leave it there. Painted lines are a reminder, not a control. They do not stop a pallet from shifting, and they do not help someone who has never been taught to read what a forklift is about to do.

The controls that sit above training

Training is not the top of the hierarchy and we will not pretend otherwise. Worked through properly, the order is:

1. Separate them in space. A pedestrian route that does not cross an operating area is the only control that removes the interaction rather than managing it. This is the one worth spending money on.
2. Separate them in time. Where you cannot separate the space, separate the hours. No unloading while the pick face is staffed. It is unglamorous and it works.
3. Engineer the pinch points. Barriers, bollards, mirrors at blind corners, and doorways that do not open straight into a travel path.
4. Make the machine and the person visible to each other. High-visibility clothing, working reversing alarms, and lighting that holds up on a winter afternoon.
5. Then train everyone who shares the space. Because every control above this line depends on people understanding why it is there.

That last point is the honest case for a course like this one. It does not replace a traffic management plan. It makes the plan hold up on a Friday afternoon when the truck is late and someone decides to take a short cut.

What to check on your own site this week

None of this needs a consultant. Walk your floor and answer five questions:

• Can a person on foot get from the door to the office without entering a forklift operating area? If not, what would it take?
• Where are the blind corners, and can an operator see a person at them before the forks do?
• Does anyone reverse into a pedestrian route? Who decided that was acceptable?
• When a visitor or a contractor arrives, what do they get told about forklifts before they walk in?
• Of the people who work on foot in that space, how many have had any forklift awareness training at all?

If the answer to the last one is none, that is not unusual and it is not a failing on your part. The guidance never told you to. It is also the cheapest thing on this page to fix, because the course is free.

Sources: WorkSafe New Zealand, Forklift training and Critical to address the risks from forklifts (30 June 2017). Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, primary duty of care.

Common questions

Is this the forklift operator licence?

No. This is awareness training for people who work around forklifts. It is not the NZQA operator unit standard or a licence to drive one.

How long does it take?

About 30 minutes. Learners can stop and pick it up again later, and their progress is saved.

Does it reflect NZ law and WorkSafe guidance?

Yes. It is built around the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and WorkSafe’s guidance on keeping people and forklifts apart.

Can I enrol my whole team?

Yes. For multiple staff, or your own branded training site with unlimited enrolments, ask about our business plans from $160/month plus GST.

Is forklift awareness training for pedestrians legally required in New Zealand?

There is no rule that names it. WorkSafe's Approved Code of Practice covers the training of forklift operators and instructors, not workers on foot. What does apply is the primary duty of care under HSWA 2015, which is owed to all of your workers. If people on foot share a space with forklifts, they are exposed to that risk and your controls need to account for them.

We already have painted walkways. Is that enough?

On its own, no. WorkSafe has been explicit that painted lines alone are not an adequate control. Separation in space or in time sits above marking in the hierarchy, and awareness training is what makes any of those controls survive a busy shift.

Does this course cover visitors and contractors?

Yes, and they are often the highest-risk group on a site, because they have had no induction into how your particular floor works. The course takes about twenty minutes and can be sent to a contractor before they arrive.