What is a forklift traffic management plan?
A forklift traffic management plan is a written, site-specific plan for how forklifts, delivery vehicles and people move around a warehouse, factory or yard without meeting where they should not. It covers the routes, how pedestrians are kept apart from vehicles, speed limits, the rules each group follows, loading bays and charging areas, how the plan is taught and how often it is checked.
Forklifts and people on foot meet at the same few places: where trucks reverse, at blind corners and rack ends, in doorways and at docks. The plan puts those places on a map and gives each one a control.
What does Dubai require, and by when?
Dubai Municipality's external circular 2026/01 on safe forklift operation asks industrial establishments and warehouses to apply its measures by 1 January 2027. The first is a traffic management plan that clearly separates forklift routes from pedestrian walkways, with barriers, signs and set speed limits. The others include 360-degree cameras and proximity sensors on forklifts, a logged daily pre-operation inspection, accredited operator training, seat belts, no passengers and no lifting people on the forks.
The Safe Forklift Operations technical guideline (DM-HSD-146-FL2) explains the plan in section 4.2: a site-specific plan, a written risk assessment of forklift and pedestrian interaction, a site map with routes, lane widths, walkways, crossings, barriers and speed limits, rules for yielding, stopping, parking, reversing and loading, roles, emergency control, and a review at least once a year and after any incident or layout change. Section 4.3 lists the separation controls; this template turns both into sections you fill in.
How to write the plan
- Walk the site at a busy time with the supervisor, two operators and someone who works on foot. Mark where people and trucks meet.
- Fill sections 1 to 3: scope, responsibilities and every type of traffic.
- Rate the hazards in section 4 and write the extra controls with a name and a date.
- Draw the map in section 5: routes, walkways, crossings, barriers, speed limits and colored zones.
- Tick the controls in place in sections 6 to 11 and plan an action for each empty box.
- Approve, post and train: the map at the entrances, the rules in the induction, and the review date in section 14.
How is the risk score worked out?
The bands are an example. If your company has its own risk matrix, use it; the important part is that each high score has an extra control, a name and a date.
Worked example: a cross aisle at a dispatch dock
- Pickers walk across the main aisle to the dispatch office; reach trucks come out of the racking at the same point. Likelihood 4, severity 4: score 16, high.
- Extra controls: a marked crossing with barriers that guide people to it, a convex mirror at the rack end, a site speed limit for the aisle posted at both ends, and the rule to slow down and sound the horn at cross aisles.
- With the controls, the team rates likelihood 2 and severity 4: score 8, medium, watched by the supervisor.
- The change goes on the map, into the induction and into the review log as version 2.
Common mistakes in forklift traffic plans
- A plan written at a desk. The short cuts people really take only show on a walk.
- Paint without barriers. A painted line separates traffic on paper; where impact risk is high, the guideline asks for barriers or bollards.
- No speed number. "Drive slowly" is not a limit; write one per area and post it.
- Forgetting temporary changes. Deliveries, maintenance and peak-season storage change routes; mark them to the same standard.
- Never reviewed. A plan from before the last racking change describes a different site.
What the template does not do
The template is a structure; the facts, limits and controls come from your site. It does not set speed limits, aisle widths or exclusion distances, because the Dubai guideline and OSHA give no single number for them. It does not replace your local authority's rules or civil defense requirements. For the daily truck check, use the Forklift Daily Pre-Use Checklist; to record incidents, the near-miss report.
Sources
- Dubai Municipality, external circular 2026/01 on safe forklift operation. Source: Dubai Municipality.
- Dubai Municipality, Safe Forklift Operations technical guideline DM-HSD-146-FL2, version 1.0, sections 4.2 to 4.5.2. Source: Dubai Municipality.
- OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.178(n), traveling. Source: OSHA. Last reviewed 21 October 2026.