Powered Industrial Trucks: Improvements in PIT Safety Tech

Powered Industrial Trucks: Improvements in PIT Safety Tech

Recent technological innovations, including those in artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to significantly improve the safety of operating forklifts and other powered industrial trucks (PITs).

In 2023-2024, PITs were the cause of 25,110 days away from work, restricted duty, and job transfer (DART) cases in the U.S., as well as 151 work-related fatalities, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and National Safety Culture (NSC).

In those same years, lack of compliance with safety standards for Powered Industrial Trucks (PITs) were the fifth and sixth most cited Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, respectively.

There is a great need for advancing PIT safety practices. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. As part of his 2026 Global Learning Summit (GLS) flash session, A Clear Path Forward: Using Technology for Pedestrian and Mobile Equipment Safety, Erich Eyman, CSP, Corporate Safety Consultant with Grainger, covered how upgrades to PITs can improve how they operate, better ensuring workplace safety.

 

Machine Vision

PITs with integrated AI machine vision use multi-position pedestrian recognition software, which is trained to visually identify people, and front, back, and/or side-mounted cameras to detect pedestrians, visually or audibly alerting the driver to their presence in blind spots.

These AI machine vision systems may be included on a PIT, but most PITs are retrofitted with them. In most cases, the zones in which pedestrians can be detected by the system’s cameras can also be customized based on PIT operator and workplace needs.

 

Proximity Systems

Integrated proximity systems use a combination of a detection system on the PIT and devices worn by pedestrians that relay their location to that detection system. The pedestrian device may be a clip, band, or other wearable—These can even detect people behind objects or corners who are not visible.

It is vitally important to engage workers with the setup of these systems, especially explaining what they do and do not track, as well as how their use helps protect their safety and the safety of everyone on the worksite.

Both integrated machine vision and proximity systems present opportunities to improve safety by moving administrative controls, reliant on human practice, up the hierarchy to the position of engineering controls, in which equipment is designed to prevent it from causing harm to people or property.

 

Geo-Fencing

The best option is always to eliminate hazards. To this end, using prevention-through-design principles, safety professionals often create areas designated exclusively for PITs and others only to be used by pedestrians.

Geo-fencing could work as a way of enforcing these traffic zones, either through reporting, alerts, or even the creation of operational barriers for PITs. Automated actions by the PIT, where it would refuse to enter a pedestrian zone, automatically come to a stop to prevent a collision, or engage other autonomous operations to protect the people in or around it, are already features of some of these systems, enhancing safety control measures.

With regard to which technology holds the most promise for improving PIT safety at your workplace, as Eyman shared during his GLS flash session, “start with the problem you are trying to solve.” These innovations hold great potential, but they depend on the experience and judgment of safety professionals to have the greatest impact.

Tags: Powered Industrial Trucks, Safety Technology, AI,

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