Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling market, rough terrain forklifts and vertical mast lift trucks could be found lifting and moving different items and supplies on jobsites around the world. There have been many other standard lift trucks which lost market share to telehandlers. This happened specially when the challenger broke onto the construction scene. Since that time, sales numbers have stabilized. Vertical-mast forklifts have re-emerged and seem to be becoming more popular once more thanks to their greater production, alteration of some telehandler-like features and low cost.
Straight-mast machinery would finish double the work which a telehandler will do due to their maneuverability and ground speed. Fascinatingly enough, rental outfits are beginning to charge higher rates on straight-mast units.
In the rough-terrain forklift business, rental buyers have been having a greater influence. More than half of all vertical-mast forklifts are now being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are generally driven mainly by use, which is a factor closely followed by purchase price.
The telehandler has become a very common equipment in the material handling business. Their popularity has given them a super advantage in terms of rental utilization. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is several forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as helpful as opposed to conventional rough-terrain lift trucks for loading and unloading repetitive tasks. This means that even though competition among telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, a lot choose the RT forklifts which have been working well for decades.
The telehandler is a little slower equipment in comparison to a rough terrain lift truck model. They are also ganglier to utilize and needs a higher level of skillfulness to complete the task. On the upside, they get the reach if they require it. There would always be a place in the industry for forklifts though, because there are locations which you can not access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain lift trucks are generally compact machinery, smaller but more able to lift a heavier load vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Essentially, so as to use the best machine for your application, you must determine what tasks exactly you would be completing, the type of conditions and setting you will be operating in and what your load capacity is. All these factors will help you choose what the best alternatives available are.