Toyota Material Handling Celebrates 25th Anniversary of SAS During National Forklift Safety Day
Toyota Material Handling is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its System of Active Stability (SAS), which reduces the likelihood of forklift tip over. Commemorated on the 11th annual National Forklift Safety Day, this milestone calls attention to Toyota’s emphasis on empowering customers to foster a culture of safety. As part of this year’s event, Toyota is sharing educational resources with dealers and forklift operators on innovative technology and forklift safety best practices.
National Forklift Safety Day, sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association (ITA), is an annual event that educates customers, policymakers, and government officials about safe forklift use and proper operator training. With approximately 4.5 million forklift operators in the workforce, Toyota continues to emphasize the importance of continual safety education.
“Since its inception 11 years ago, National Forklift Safety Day has helped drive more discussion about making and keeping forklift safety a core part of every organization’s culture,” said Cesar Jimenez, Toyota Material Handling vice president of regulatory affairs, product planning, and product assurance. “National Forklift Safety Day helps us reinforce our industry mission and message to provide new and ongoing safety training to forklift operators in all industries.”
In addition to SAS, Toyota’s Smart Environment Sensor Plus (SEnS+) can assist operators in identifying pedestrians or objects in their path. SEnS+ includes dynamic zoning, adjustable truck slowdown and backward movement prevention features. These innovative technologies are part of Toyota Assist, a suite of advanced features designed to enhance forklift operability, productivity and situational awareness that are a testament to Toyota’s commitment to promoting safety within the industry.
Toyota’s Jimenez and Brett Wood, president & CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, will play key roles in Tuesday’s event. Wood, currently serving his second term as ITA chair, participated on the committee that established the first National Forklift Safety Day. During his initial tenure, Wood was instrumental in developing the ITA’s economic impact report, Lifting America: The Economic Impact of Industrial Truck Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers. This report provided the industry with quantifiable statistics, offering valuable insights and emphasizing the importance of safety within the material handling industry.
Jimenez, who also has nearly three decades of experience in the industry, has followed in Wood’s footsteps with his appointment as the chair for this year’s National Forklift Safety Day. Jimenez and Wood have been steadfast in their leadership to raise awareness and increase safety standards within the material handling industry.
Toyota Material Handling also cultivates a safety-focused culture by offering site surveys, consultations and operator training. By embodying Toyota’s culture of Kaizen – or continuous improvement – and upholding Toyota’s core values, Toyota Material Handling is integral in promoting the vital role industrial trucks perform in manufacturing, warehousing, logistics and distribution. For more resources, visit Toyota Material Handling’s National Forklift Safety Day page at ToyotaForklift.com.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.