Transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen is considering a ban on apping and texting in cars and on bicycles. This is because 600 people are killed and seriously injured every year by using smartphones in cars. Smartphones can also pose a danger in the warehouse. Time to curb this danger, argues BLOM Training.
The internal transport training provider bases this on research among almost 1,200 forklift drivers. This showed that smartphones are regularly used in warehouses. This is not only a problem with forklift drivers, but also with pedestrians who pull out their mobiles. The research shows that forklift drivers are annoyed by pedestrians who "suddenly" pop up. "You get scared to death," said one respondent. "Then if those pedestrians are not paying attention themselves, the damage is quickly done."
Read also: Schultz warns drivers about smartphones behind the wheel
Some workplaces do have guidelines on the use of phones, but these rules are often not enforced. "The question is also what the team leaders and warehouse managers themselves do the moment they receive a business phone call or email during their tour of the warehouse. Who can expect their employees not to use their phones when their manager does? Now that the time for reflection has arrived in many respects, it is worth thinking about this too," BLOM said.
According to the educator, we should not forget other technologies in the process. "If phones are a problem, what about all the other devices we use? Think of the headsets that speak meaningful order picking information into the ears of order pickers riding through the aisles on their order picking trucks. Or think of the forklift terminals that tell drivers which storage location to send them to." BLOM wonders if those devices also increase the risk of accidents. "They almost have to if we consider that hands-free talking on the phone in the car is also four times more likely to cause an accident."
Editorial LogistiekProfs
