Human Factors Limitations in Fork-Lift Truck Performance

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of spatial restrictions on speed and errors in fork-lift truck driving. The first required accurate longitudinal setting of the vehicle and the second required accurate lateral control of the vehicle. In both experiments performance in terms of speed and errors improved as the spatial restrictions wore eased. Significant differences in both experiments between the five vehicles and four drivers were found both for speed and error rate. Theoretical models of driving performance pertinent to the tasks were fitted to the data with good results. Deviations from those models were used to set practical limits on the spatial requirements for rapid, safe, fork-lift truck performance.