Most forklifts and lift trucks are available with many common security features, like seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles would usually have dead-man petals. Furthermore, certain manufacturers are offering more features like for instance speed controls that can reduce the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more information, there are many articles available about Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Support and Service
A huge part of lift truck selection is to make sure 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. Even though they provide a good price and a decent forklift design, if they do not offer the local or regional service and support infrastructure, you must be prepared for significant aggravation when the lift truck breaks. Every type of lift truck goes down at some point and parts, service and general questions should be addressed at some point.
Normally, you will want a local dealer or repair shop with a huge supply of parts for the specific model and make you are purchasing. Be sure to visit the repair shop or the dealership and take a look at their parts room so as to try to know how many parts they stock. Make certain to ask that if they do not have the component you require, where will it come from? Hopefully, the answer would be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the models presently utilized in your area. This is doubly important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being utilized in their service area that you must assume they might not be stocking many if any parts for them. Also, they may have very little overall experience in servicing that particular model too.