Safety comes first at Royal A-ware. Not least when it comes to driving different types of forklifts. Johanna van der Veen, SHE officer at A-ware Packaging in Almere, gained her qualification allowing her to examine drivers of electric pallet trucks in 2024. 'With theory, practice and supervision, we contribute to fewer accidents.'
'To drive an electric pallet truck, a certificate is not mandatory,' Johanna van der Veen says. 'Because Royal A-ware stands for safety, we have gone the extra mile by setting up specific training courses ourselves for our machinery, including electric pallet trucks.'
'We obviously want everyone to be able to work safely and responsibly with our internal transport equipment. The Occupational Health and Safety Act states that a driver must be "sufficiently competent", but what does that mean? We've now developed that standard ourselves because driving an electric pallet truck is quite risky. We're aiming to eliminate incidents. This standard helps with that.'
Theory and practice
The training is delivered through e-learning that every driver of a material handling vehicle must take. Topics covered include speed, maximum lifting weight, maximum lifting height, what to do in unclear situations, all tailored to Royal A-ware.
For the practical part, Johanna and a colleague took a train-the-trainer course at the Safety Institute. She might test employees for five years on their practical skills needed to drive the electric pallet truck. What does she look out for? 'Can they drive forward and backward well? Can they lift a pallet in a narrow passage without hitting anything else? But also: when starting up, do they first check that everything works, such as the emergency stop? That check is important to do every time.'
Speaking to each other
Besides theory and practice, monitoring is an important aspect in safety policy. 'Monitoring may sound harsh, but it is about colleagues on the shop floor starting to call each other to account for unsafe behaviour. In addition, I or someone from the Operations Management Team regularly walk around to have a chat and get colleagues thinking about their behaviour in the workplace.'
'Having colleagues address each other is a real culture shift,' Johanna believes. 'We are clearly making progress here. It is becoming increasingly normal to do so, as is reporting an unsafe situation. For example, if someone isn't wearing hearing protection. Ultimately, in the SHE department, we can take stock of the risk reports and conclude that a specific topic, hearing protection for example, might need more attention. One great result is the reduction in workload, as the urgency steadily declines. Awareness is incredibly important and we are working hard on that.'