Operating a forklift is a big responsibility. If you don't follow safety guidelines and instructions, you could do major damage to the machinery, merchandise or, even worse, to yourself or fellow employees. The third stage of operating a forklift is load handling. There are eight steps for safe load handling, all of which have their own safe operating rules, and we'll go through each one in this course: 1. Safe handling preparation 2. Approaching 3. Mast position 4. Fork position 5. Lifting the load 6. Lowering the load 7. High tiering and 8. Loading and unloading trailers.