In June 1946, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers adopted a resolution to develop a Safety Code for Powered Industrial Trucks. On August 7, 1947, the American Standards Association (now called the American National Standards Institute, Inc.) approved ASME sponsorship of such a standard.  An organizational meeting was held on May 20, 1948. 

Comments from a first draft, dated 1949, were incorporated in a final draft dated November, 1949, which was submitted to Sectional Committee Members for letter ballot vote and was unanimously affirmed. In June,1950, ASA (now called ANSI) approved the code as submitted, and issued it as ASA B56.1-1950, Safety Code for Industrial Powered Trucks.