Most forklifts and lift trucks come with many common security features, such as seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will usually have dead-man petals. Moreover, some manufacturers are providing extra features such as speed controls which are able to decrease the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more information, there are numerous articles available on Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Service and Support
Making certain you will maintain access to high levels of service and support is a really vital part of lift truck selection. There seem to be a variety of new players in the lift truck business each year. Although they offer a decent lift truck design and a good price, if they do not offer the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you must be prepared for major stress when the lift truck breaks. Each lift truck model goes down sooner or later and service, parts and general questions must be addressed at some point.
Generally, you will want a local repair shop or dealer with a huge supply of components for the particular make and model you are buying. Be sure to visit the dealership or the repair shop and take a look at their parts room in order to try to understand how many parts they store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the component you require, where would it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer will be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Moreover, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific models are currently being utilized within your area. This is really important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks in use in their service area that you must assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. In addition, they may have very little overall experience in servicing that specific model as well.