The majority of reach trucks and forklifts come with lots of common safety features, such as seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will usually have dead-man petals. Moreover, some manufacturers are offering more features like for example speed controls that could decrease the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more info, there are numerous articles available about Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Service and Support
A huge part of forklift selection is to make certain that you maintain access to high levels of support and service. Each and every year, there seems to be a wider array 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 local or regional service and support infrastructure, you should be prepared for major stress when the forklift goes down. Each and every lift truck model goes down eventually and parts, service and general questions must be answered at some point.
You will generally want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a complete supply of the components you need for your particular unit. 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 stock. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the component you need, where will it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer will be from a regional or local distribution facility.
In addition, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific models are presently being used within your area. This is really vital for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being used in their service area that you must assume they might not be stocking many if any parts for them. In addition, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that model as well.