Forklift Blended Training Introduction

Think you need to send workers off-site to distant forklift training centers or hire expensive consultants that shut down your entire operation for full-day classroom training for your forklift operators?

Did you know that sending workers to live training centers alone isn’t enough to meet OSHA’s forklift training requirements?

With the proper training method, you can train & certify your operators in-house, on your schedule, using your own team.

This method also ensures full compliance with regulatory training requirements, including OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178, ANSI B56.1, and CSA B335 safety standards for forklifts.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.

The method is “Blended Forklift Operator Training.“

Before we dive into the specifics of blended training, let’s quickly review exactly what the complete forklift training process includes for operators.

Forklift Operator Training Requirements

OSHA states that operators must complete two separate phases of training. This includes:

General Training

This part of the training covers forklift fundamentals, safety, and theory. It’s basically the “classroom” portion of the training that we’re all familiar with.

Workplace-Specific Training

This part of the training is completed in the workplace, using the actual equipment the operator will be working with. It covers workplace and equipment specifics.

Both training phases must also conclude with an evaluation. Phase 1 concludes with a knowledge assessment, and phase 2 concludes with a practical evaluation.

So here’s what the entire OSHA forklift certification process looks like:

1. General Training: This can be completed in a traditional classroom setting or via online training.
2. Knowledge Evaluation: This can be completed by administering a test in a classroom setting or automatically when using online training.
3. Workplace/Equipment-Specific Training: This type of training, also known as “on-the-job” training, is completed in the workplace using the specific equipment the operator will be working with.
4. Practical Evaluation: A forklift trainer or evaluator will observe the operator performing forklift functions, confirm that they are performed safely and correctly, and then log those results on a checklist.

All four components are essential, and skipping any can be detrimental as it does not meet regulatory requirements, and worse, it could result in your workers getting injured or killed.

Some employers focus on the fundamentals but stop there. Workers complete a classroom session or an online training, and everyone assumes they’re “fully trained”. But they’ve never connected that knowledge to the actual equipment and hazards in their workplace.

Others go the opposite direction.

Workers learn on the job and are shown the ropes by a supervisor or an experienced operator, but they don’t receive the required safety training or a documented evaluation.

They know how to perform the tasks, but they’ve overlooked the critical safety content that’s covered in the classroom or comprehensive online training.

Compliance requires all components. Now we’ll cover exactly how you can achieve this compliance easily, in your own workplace, using your own team. 

What is Blended Forklift Operator Training?

Blended training combines two training methods to cover all four OSHA requirements:

Method 1: Online Forklift Training

The formal instruction, or “theory,” is delivered entirely online, and operators complete it independently, at their own pace. The online training covers fundamentals, regulatory requirements, stability and capacity principles, as well as forklift safety guidelines. The required knowledge evaluation is integrated directly into the online training, eliminating the need for live knowledge testing and grading. It’s completely automatic.

Method 2: Workplace-Specific Practical Training and Practical Evaluation

The workplace-specific training and practical evaluation are conducted in person, at your facility, by someone from your team. This covers your specific equipment, your facility layout, your pedestrian traffic patterns, and the particular hazards your operators will encounter.

Combining the Two Methods

Online training delivers consistent, comprehensive formal instruction without the logistical headaches of classroom scheduling. Your internal trainer handles the hands-on component—which you’d have to do anyway, even if you sent operators to an offsite class.

This isn’t a workaround. It’s exactly what OSHA intended. The regulation explicitly recognizes “interactive computer learning” as a valid method for formal instruction. 

The practical and evaluation components were always intended to take place at the workplace.

Online Forklift Training vs. Classroom Training

Traditionally, the formal instruction portion of forklift training was delivered in a classroom. An instructor, a room full of operators, a half-day or full-day session away from the job.

It works, but it comes with challenges:

• You have to coordinate schedules across shifts.
• Pull operators off the floor at the same time.
• Pay for an instructor or send people to an off-site training center.
• New hires wait for the next scheduled session.
• Refresher training becomes a logistical headache.

Online training delivers the same formal instruction without the headaches.

Operators complete it when it makes sense for your schedule. Someone hired today can start training today. Someone who needs refresher training can complete it in an afternoon without involving anyone else.

The content remains the same—stability and capacity principles, load handling, pre-use inspection, and general forklift-related hazards. That’s standardized based on OSHA requirements. What changes is the delivery: more flexible, more scalable, and significantly less disruptive to your operation.

And because online training includes built-in knowledge evaluation, you get automated certificates and completion records. This means the proof of training is easily accessible when OSHA shows up and demands to see it.

Who Can Complete Workplace-Specific Forklift Training?

OSHA requires that practical training and evaluation be conducted by “persons who have the knowledge, training, and experience to train powered industrial truck operators and evaluate their competence.”

This doesn’t mean you need to hire an outside consultant. It means you need someone qualified—and that person can absolutely be an employee.

Here are examples of individuals who can fill this role:

Supervisor

Supervisors typically possess a comprehensive understanding of workplace operations and the challenges operators may encounter. With their knowledge and experience, they are well-positioned to train and evaluate operators effectively.

By enhancing their fundamental forklift knowledge and teaching abilities through additional training, they can better communicate safety protocols, operating techniques, and evaluation criteria to operators.

Experienced Forklift Operator

Another strong candidate for the role of trainer is an experienced operator who is familiar with your workplace’s processes, has hands-on experience with your equipment, and is knowledgeable about specific hazards and safety measures.

Completing a forklift trainer program can help them add instructional skills and turn their real-world expertise into actionable teaching skills for operators. This ensures that training is both practical and highly relevant to the equipment and work environment.

Team Leader or Shift Manager

Team leaders and shift managers often work closely with operators and understand the day-to-day realities of forklift operations.

They’re extremely well-suited to step into a forklift trainer role, especially when they’re provided with resources to enhance their ability to deliver engaging training sessions and conduct practical evaluations.

Safety Manager

A safety manager can bring a comprehensive understanding of workplace safety standards and can easily integrate forklift operator training into a company’s overall safety program.

With additional tools to refine their instructional approach, safety managers can provide operators with a robust and compliant training experience.

Choosing the Right Trainer

The best forklift trainers and evaluators are individuals who already have an in-depth understanding of your workplace, equipment, and hazards. This is what makes your team better than an outside provider.

Supervisors, experienced operators, and safety professionals within your organization can leverage their existing knowledge and skills to become highly effective trainers.

With the right tools and preparation, they can train operators effectively and conduct evaluations that meet OSHA’s complete requirements.

Forklift Train-the-Trainer Certification

Supervisors, experienced operators, managers, and safety professionals bring valuable workplace knowledge to the table. 

However, there’s a distinction between understanding your facility’s operations and knowing forklift safety principles, OSHA requirements, and how to teach and evaluate operators effectively.

A train-the-trainer program bridges that gap.

It helps your internal trainers incorporate instructional techniques, evaluation methods, and a structured approach to delivering workplace-specific training, enabling them to train your team with confidence and consistency.

Benefits of Completing a Forklift Trainer & Evaluator Program

The benefits of completing a forklift train-the-trainer program are numerous, and include the following:

• Strengthens Knowledge and Instructional Skills: A forklift train-the-trainer program deepens understanding of forklift fundamentals, including safety protocols, operational principles, and equipment maintenance. It also provides trainers with practical teaching techniques, enabling them to communicate these concepts and effectively engage operators in a clear and concise manner.

• Ensures Compliance with OSHA Standards: Internal trainers who complete a structured forklift train-the-trainer program are better equipped to deliver consistent, OSHA-aligned training that meets both regulatory and workplace-specific requirements. This helps businesses maintain compliance while improving overall safety.

• Enhances Evaluation Skills: The course teaches trainers how to assess operator competence through hands-on, practical evaluations. Trainers learn to identify skill gaps, provide constructive feedback, and document results thoroughly to demonstrate compliance.

• Saves Time and Resources: Developing in-house trainers and evaluators eliminates the need for costly external training providers. By empowering internal staff, businesses can streamline their training programs and reduce downtime.

Why Blended Forklift Operator Training Works

At this point, you understand what blended training is, how it works, and who can deliver it.

Here’s why this method is so effective and is used by leading companies who want to keep their forklift operators and teams safe, ensure compliance, and save hundreds of hours in administrative time.

Full OSHA Compliance

Blended training covers all components required by OSHA, ANSI, and CSA, including theory, knowledge evaluation, workplace-specific training, and the practical evaluation. You’re not just checking some of the boxes. You’re checking all of them.

Reduced Risk of Incidents

Operators who complete all components of forklift training are better prepared to recognize hazards and work safely. They understand the principles and know how to apply them in your environment. That’s what actually reduces incidents, injuries, and equipment damage.

Complete Control Over Your Training Program

You decide who trains, when training happens, and how it’s delivered. No coordinating with outside vendors. No waiting for scheduled sessions. No dependency on consultants. Your team, your schedule, your facility.

Lower Training Costs

Online forklift training costs a fraction of the cost of instructor-led classroom sessions. Your internal trainers handle the workplace-specific portion and practical evaluation. This means no consultant fees, no per-worker charges for the hands-on component. When you factor in the quantified time savings for administration, the cost savings are even more substantial. 

Scalable for Any Team Size

Whether you’re training five operators or 500, the process is the same. Online training scales infinitely. Your internal trainer handles the practical portion regardless of group size. Growth doesn’t mean multiplying your training costs for practicals.

Minimal Disruption to Operations

Operators complete online training at a time that’s most convenient for your operations, including between shifts, during breakdowns, or during scheduled downtime. The workplace-specific portion can also be scheduled at a time that is most convenient and flexible.

Long-Term Internal Capability

Once your trainers are qualified, that capability stays with your organization. New hires, refresher training, procedure updates—you handle it all without outside help. You build the system once and use it indefinitely.

How to Implement Blended Forklift Operator Training

Here’s how the complete forklift operator blended training method works step by step, with ForkliftTraining.com:

Step 1: Identify Your Internal Trainers

Determine who will deliver the workplace-specific training and complete practical evaluations. You can have a single trainer or multiple trainers for additional flexibility.

As mentioned earlier, some of the best forklift trainers and evaluators are supervisors, experienced operators, managers, or safety professionals. Employees who are familiar with your facility’s operations, their associated hazards, and the safeguarding controls.

Step 2: Purchase Training and Enroll Your Team

Purchase forklift instructor/evaluator ( train-the-trainer) registration(s) for your designated trainer(s) and forklift operator online training registrations for your operators. 

With ForkliftTraining.com, training program registrations never expire, allowing you to purchase higher quantities to take advantage of discounts without worrying about losing them. They will remain in your account until you are ready to use them for new trainers, onboarding, and refresher training. 

Step 3: Your Trainers Complete the Train-the-Trainer Program

Your trainers complete the forklift train-the-trainer program at their own pace. It covers forklift fundamentals, instructional techniques, and practical evaluation methods. This helps prepare them to deliver workplace-specific training and complete practical evaluations.

Step 4: Operators Complete Online Training

Operators complete the forklift operator online training when it’s most convenient for you. They move through the material at their own pace, complete the knowledge evaluation, and receive their certificate of completion.

Step 5: Your Trainers Complete the Practical Training

Your trainers conduct the practical training component at your workplace, including the documented practical evaluation checklist, which is included. This is where the online knowledge connects to your actual work environment.

That’s full OSHA compliance: formal instruction + practical training + workplace evaluation.

Ongoing Forklift Training

Once your blended forklift training system is in place, ongoing training is simple.

• Onboarding New Operators: New operators complete the online forklift training, then your trainer completes the practical training and evaluation. Same process, no additional setup required.

• Refresher Training: When it’s time for refresher training, whether annually, every three years, or when an operator is observed to be operating unsafely, the process is the same: Workers complete the online training, and your trainer handles the practical portion.

• Qualifying Additional Trainers: As your team grows or trainers move on, you may need to qualify additional internal forklift instructors. Simply purchase additional trainer registrations and enroll them in the program. Once they complete it, they’re ready to train.

Purchasing Additional Registrations

Additional forklift operator and forklift train-the-trainer registrations can be purchased at any time.

With ForkliftTraining.com, training registrations never expire. You can purchase in higher quantities to take advantage of volume discounts without worrying about losing them. 

They remain in your account until you’re ready to use them—for new trainers, onboarding, or operator refresher training.

Is Online Forklift Certification Legit?

Yes — when it’s used correctly.

Online forklift training is a fully legitimate and OSHA-recognized method for delivering the formal instruction portion of operator training. OSHA explicitly allows interactive computer-based learning for this part of the process.

Where confusion arises is not whether online training is valid, but what online training is responsible for covering.

Forklift operator training under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178 has always required more than one component. Regardless of whether the classroom portion is delivered online or in person, a complete forklift training program must include:

• Formal instruction (theory)
• A knowledge evaluation
• Workplace and equipment-specific training
• A documented practical evaluation

Online training is an excellent solution for the first two components.

It was never intended to replace workplace-specific training or hands-on evaluation.

That isn’t a limitation of online training. It’s how OSHA designed the regulation.

Why Some Providers Get This Wrong

Many training providers market “100% online forklift certification” as if a single course can satisfy every regulatory requirement.

In reality, no provider — whether online or a live training center — can evaluate an operator’s competence on your equipment, in your facility, with your specific hazards. 

That responsibility always belongs to the employer.

Some providers simply gloss over this fact. Others bury it in fine print. The result is widespread confusion and a false expectation that completing a course alone equals full certification. ForkliftTraining.com takes a different approach.

We are upfront about what OSHA requires — because that’s what actually protects workers and employers when it matters.

Online Training Isn’t the Whole Program — It’s the Foundation

The most effective forklift training programs don’t rely on a single delivery method. They combine:

• Online training for consistent, scalable formal instruction and automated knowledge evaluation.
• Internal workplace training delivered by people who understand your equipment, layout, and hazards.
• Practical evaluations, documented on standardized checklists that stand up to scrutiny.
  

This is the blended forklift operator training model. It doesn’t cut corners. It doesn’t shift responsibility. It aligns precisely with how OSHA evaluates forklift training programs during inspections and investigations.

What Makes ForkliftTraining.com Different

Most providers stop at explaining the requirement. We go further. ForkliftTraining.com provides:

• OSHA-aligned online operator training with built-in knowledge evaluation.
• Forklift train-the-trainer programs to prepare internal instructors and evaluators.
• Practical evaluation checklists and documentation tools.
• Centralized training records and certificates for compliance verification.

In other words, we don’t just sell a forklift training course — we give employers a complete, defensible forklift training system.

What OSHA Actually Looks For

When OSHA evaluates forklift training programs, they don’t ask whether someone “took a course.” They ask:

• Who conducted the practical training?
• Who evaluated the operator’s competence?
• Was the evaluation performed on the actual equipment used?
• Is there documentation of that evaluation?

A blended training program allows you to answer every one of those questions — clearly, confidently, and with records to prove it. That’s not a workaround. That’s compliance done correctly.

Is blended forklift training compliant with OSHA?

Yes. Blended forklift training is one of the most compliant approaches available, as it addresses all the required components of OSHA’s forklift training standard: formal instruction, practical training, and workplace-specific evaluation.

Is online forklift training recognized by OSHA, ANSI, and CSA forklift safety standards?

Yes. OSHA explicitly recognizes interactive computer-based learning as a valid method for delivering formal forklift operator training. ANSI B56.1 and CSA B335 include similar allowances for computer-based instruction as part of a complete training program.

Who can conduct the practical training and evaluation?

Practical training and evaluation can be conducted by individuals who possess the necessary knowledge, training, and experience to train and evaluate forklift operators and assess their competence. This can include employees such as supervisors, experienced operators, team leads, or safety managers who have received appropriate preparation, such as completing a forklift train-the-trainer program.

How long does it take to fully implement forklift blended training?

The forklift blended training method can be implemented as quickly as the same day.

The train-the-trainer program takes approximately 5 – 6 hours to complete, and operators can begin their forklift operator online training simultaneously. 

Once both are done, your trainer can deliver the workplace-specific portion immediately. Some organizations are fully up and running within 24 hours. Others spread it across a few days or weeks, depending on their schedule. The timeline is entirely up to you.

Do trainers have to complete the worker version of the forklift operator training?

If you’re completing our forklift train-the-trainer program, you do not need to complete our online operator training. The forklift operator training content is fully integrated into the train-the-trainer program, ensuring trainers complete the same core operator material and maintain full alignment on training content, terminology, and guidelines.

What if my forklift trainer leaves the company?

If your internal trainer leaves the company, you can deem another employee as a trainer and have them complete the forklift train-the-trainer program.

Many employers choose to qualify multiple trainers from the start to ensure coverage across shifts and provide continuity in case of staffing changes.

Is the training available in Spanish?

Yes. ForkliftTraining.com offers forklift operator training in both English and Spanish.