Forklift compliance for warehouses that never stop.
Three shifts, agency peaks, reach trucks in narrow aisles and racking that takes a knock a week. Warehousing is where the daily check matters most — and where paper systems fail first.
What goes wrong in warehousing & distribution
One check, three shifts
HSE guidance expects a pre-use check per shift, not per day. A paper book signed at 06:00 says nothing about the truck the night shift takes over at 22:00.
Agency operators at peak
Christmas peak doubles the operator pool. Licence categories and expiry dates are exactly what slips when thirty new starters arrive in a fortnight.
Racking strikes go unreported
Impact damage to racking and trucks is routinely unlogged on paper. Untracked damage compounds until it becomes a collapse or a failed fork.
Asset360 on the ground
The 24/7 RDC running three shifts
The situation
A regional distribution centre runs 40 trucks around the clock. The day shift's paper checks exist; nights are patchy; nobody can say which truck was checked when the auditor asks.
With Asset360
Every operator scans the truck at shift start — the record is per-shift, time-stamped and attributed. The dashboard shows live completion by shift, so a missed check is visible at 22:15, not at year-end audit.
Peak-season agency staff
The situation
Thirty agency operators join for peak. Two have lapsed licences and one is only rated for counterbalance but gets put on a reach truck.
With Asset360
PIN authorisation blocks lapsed licences and wrong truck categories at the point of use. The agency operators who are cleared work immediately; the ones who aren't never get the keys.
The racking strike that finally gets logged
The situation
A truck clips an upright at 03:00. On paper, nothing happens — the damage is found weeks later during a racking inspection.
With Asset360
The operator fails the check item, photographs the damage, and a work order is raised before the shift ends. The full history sits on the truck's record for the insurer and the racking inspector.
Warehousing & distribution: common questions
Does each shift need its own forklift check?
Yes. HSE guidance expects a pre-use check before each shift or first use, not one check per calendar day. Asset360 records checks per operator per shift, so a three-shift operation shows three records per truck per day.
How do you handle agency and temporary operators?
Each operator has a record with accreditation (RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT), licence categories and expiry. A lapsed licence or wrong truck category is blocked at PIN entry — before the check starts, before the truck moves.
Do reach trucks and VNA trucks get different checklists?
Yes. Checklists are class-aware and fuel-type-aware: reach trucks get their additional items automatically, and electric trucks get battery checks instead of diesel or LPG items.
General guidance, not legal advice. See our plain-English guides to PUWER, LOLER and the daily forklift check.
See it on your own fleet.
A 20-minute demo set up with your trucks — including the checks and evidence that matter in warehousing & distribution.