Most reach trucks and forklifts are available with lots of common security features, including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles would normally have dead-man petals. Furthermore, some manufacturers are offering more features such as speed controls that can reduce the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more info, there are many available articles 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 service and support. Every year, there seems to be a wider variety of new players within the lift truck industry. Although they provide a nice price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the local or regional service and support infrastructure, you need to be prepared for major aggravation when the lift truck goes down. Each type of lift truck goes down eventually and service, parts and general questions must be addressed at some point.
Usually, you will want a local repair shop or dealer with a great supply of parts for the specific model and make you are buying. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and check their parts room so as to try to understand how many parts they store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the part you need, where will it come from? Hopefully, the answer will be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the units presently used in your area. This is doubly vital for specialty trucks such as turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being utilized in their service area that you should assume they might not be stocking many if any parts for them. As well, they may have very little overall experience in servicing that model as well.