A Single Forklift Accident Can Cripple Your Business
It’s true– a single forklift accident can cripple your business. Non-fatal injuries cost $84 million weekly. In addition to posing significant legal costs to your business, forklift accidents cause downtime, insurance hikes, fines, and employee turnover. All of these consequences of forklift accidents and injuries are significantly expensive and can easily cause any business to go under. That’s why it’s critical to employ safety measures that go above and beyond to prevent devastating forklift-related accidents and injuries. But, besides the typical safety requirements, what can businesses do to protect their workforce and warehouse?
Here, we’ll explore proactive safety solutions from ELOKON that your material handling team can install. At ELOKON, we’ve designed leading automated safety and driver-assistance systems for forklifts. Our solutions make forklift safety second nature, protecting your team from human error that can cost your company millions.
Before we discuss these solutions, let’s take a look at how a single forklift accident can cripple your business.
The Costs of Forklift-Related Accidents
The costs of forklift-related accidents extend beyond workers’ compensation. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports employers pay nearly $1 billion a week in direct workers' compensation costs, but companies often face much higher expenses when other consequences are considered. Workers’ comp is certainly a large expense of forklift-related accidents and is often enough to render a company bankrupt. However, other outcomes also affect a company’s ability to stay afloat following an accident. These include other legal fees, downtime, decreased morale, increased insurance premiums, damage to equipment and property, and employee turnover.
Other Legal Fees
Legal fees such as fines, lawyer fees, and subsequent lawsuits can escalate financial difficulties for a company. Material handling teams put their business at risk if they don’t take the necessary precautions to prevent these accidents in the first place.
Downtime and Decreased Morale
Downtime is another costly consequence of forklift accidents and injuries, and it decreases momentum and morale. So, companies can experience a negative shift in the working environment, in addition to financial losses.
Employee Turnover
This decrease in momentum and morale can also turn into a financial loss, as employees may leave a company due to its safety gaps and poor handling of accidents. As a result, companies have to spend more money on hiring new employees since recruitment and training are typically more expensive than retention. Employee turnover can be expensive, and it further worsens productivity and morale.
Increased Insurance Premiums
The occurrence of forklift-related accidents usually drastically increases insurance premiums. This is a consequence of accidents that cut into a company’s bottom line and have a lasting effect on profitability.
Damage to Equipment and Property
Damage to equipment and property is another expensive consequence of forklift accidents that can cripple your business. On top of increased insurance premiums, legal fees, and other costs related to the accident, the burden of replacing or fixing equipment or property can add up. The sum of the costs could put a whole business at risk of bankruptcy and/or closure. The right tech can prevent costly damage to equipment and property, saving your company money and frustration.
Just one of these costs related to forklift accidents can easily cripple a business. However, forklift accidents are usually accompanied by two or more of these consequences that add to the expense of recovering from such an event. A business must be prepared before an accident happens in order to prevent the possibility of these consequences in the first place. Luckily, modern technology can prevent up to 70% of these accidents. At ELOKON, we’ve seen firsthand how investing in tech such as advanced fleet management and collision avoidance systems pays off.
How ELOKON Can Help
Find the Right ELOKON Solutions for Your Warehouse
At ELOKON, we understand that every warehouse is different. So, safety needs will differ as well. Our safety solutions adapt to the needs of your warehouse by automatically detecting unique collision hazards and preventing catastrophic accidents. A single forklift accident can cripple your business, and ELOKON's automated safety and driver assistance systems prevent these accidents that put your business at risk. Contact our team today to learn how ELOKON tech can better protect your workforce and warehouse