There are a variety of security features which are common to particular kinds of trucks including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On most stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals also. Additionally, certain manufacturers are offering extra features such as speed controls that are able to decrease 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 big part of lift truck selection is to make certain that you maintain access to high levels of service and support. Each and every year, there seems to be a wider array of new players within the forklift industry. Even if they provide a good price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the local or regional service and support infrastructure, you should be prepared for significant aggravation when the forklift goes down. Each and every lift truck model goes down sooner or later and parts, service and general questions must be addressed at some point.
Usually, you will want a local dealer or repair shop with a great supply of components for the specific make and model you are purchasing. Be sure 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 certain to ask that if they do not have the part you need, where will it come from? Hopefully, the answer would 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 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. Furthermore, they may have very little overall experience in servicing that specific model as well.