The majority of reach trucks and forklifts are available with lots of common security features, such as seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will almost always have dead-man petals. Additionally, certain manufacturers are providing more features like for instance speed controls that can decrease the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more info, there are numerous available articles on Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Support and Service
A huge part of lift truck selection is to make certain that you maintain access to high levels of support and service. Each year, there seems to be a wider variety of new players within the forklift industry. Although they offer a decent lift truck design and a good price, if they do not provide the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you need to be ready for significant aggravation when the lift truck breaks. Each kind of lift truck goes down sooner or later and parts, service and general questions would probably need to be addressed at some point.
Generally, you would want a local repair shop or dealer with a great supply of parts for the specific make and model you are purchasing. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and check their parts room so as to try to know how many parts they store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the part you need, where would it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer would be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Moreover, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific models are presently being utilized within your vicinity. This is very important for specialty trucks like 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. Additionally, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that particular model as well.