Justify a forklift safety investment with measured exposure and full incident costs rather than the recordable injury rate alone. Count the high-risk forklift-pedestrian interactions, near misses, and product, rack and equipment damage the site already has. Cost a representative serious incident, including medical and wage costs, investigation time, downtime, replacement labour and insurance effects, and estimate how much of that exposure the proposed control addresses. Support the case with a pilot result from your own site where possible, and include running costs, maintenance and training, not only the purchase price.
The full guide is forklift safety system ROI, with a worked business case. National figures help frame severity: the National Safety Council reports 84 work-related deaths involving forklifts in 2024 and 25,110 cases with days away, restricted duty or job transfer across 2023-2024. Use them as context, not as your site’s expected loss.
Damage costs are often easier to verify than injury costs and can form a meaningful part of the case. The risk scorer gives a quick view of where your exposure sits, and the business case for forklift safety technology covers how to present it to finance.