The majority of forklifts and lift trucks come with many common security features, like seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will usually have dead-man petals. Additionally, certain manufacturers are providing more features like speed controls which could reduce the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more information, there are numerous articles available about Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Support and Service
A big part of forklift selection is to make certain that you maintain access to high levels of support and service. Each year, there seems to be a wider array of new players within the lift truck industry. Although they provide a decent lift truck design and a good price, if they do not provide the local or regional service and support infrastructure, you must be prepared for major stress when the lift truck breaks. Each and every model of lift truck goes down eventually and parts, service and general questions should be answered at some point.
You would normally want to have a nearby dealer or repair shop with a complete supply of the components you need for your specific unit. Be certain to visit the repair shop or the dealership and check their parts room in order to try to know how many parts they store. Make sure to ask that if they do not have the part you need, where will it come from? With any luck, the answer will be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the units currently utilized within your area. This is doubly essential for specialty trucks such as turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks in use in their service area that you should assume they might not be stocking many if any parts for them. Furthermore, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that model too.