What this check covers

This free check covers the controls that keep machinery and forklifts safe when they work together: a plant register with a responsible person for each machine, guarding of moving and rotating parts, start and stop controls, emergency stops and interlocks, authorised and competent operators, pre-use checks and defect reporting, planned preventive maintenance, forklift routes, reversing, blind spots and pedestrian interaction, rated capacities and load stability, segregation of vehicles and people, isolation of hazardous energy before maintenance, and reassessment when a machine is modified, moved or used differently. Eleven questions, six of them safety-critical: guarding, emergency stops, operator competence, rated capacities, segregation and energy isolation. The basis is the Driven Machinery Regulations, 2015 and the Occupational Health and Safety Act; inspection, testing and operator requirements vary by class of machinery, so the check screens the system rather than certifying any machine. It is aimed at the workshop, plant or warehouse manager and the person responsible for lifting equipment. Most machinery incidents happen when guarding, competence, traffic, inspection, maintenance and production pressure stop working as one system, and that is what the questions look for.