Most reach trucks and forklifts are available with a lot of common security features, such as seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will almost always have dead-man petals. Moreover, certain manufacturers are providing more features like for example speed controls that are able to decrease the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more information, there are numerous articles available on Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Support and Service
Making certain you will maintain access to high levels of support and service is a hugely essential part of forklift selection. There seem to be a range of new players in the lift truck business each year. Even though they offer a nice price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the regional or local support and service infrastructure, you need to be ready for significant stress when the lift truck goes down. Each and every lift truck model goes down at some point and parts, service and general questions would probably have to be answered at some point.
You will generally want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a complete supply of the parts you require for your specific unit. Be certain to visit the repair shop or the dealership and check their parts room in order to try to understand how many parts they stock. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the part you require, where would it come from? Hopefully, the answer would be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the models currently used within your vicinity. This is doubly important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being used in their service area that you should assume they might not be stocking many if any parts for them. What's more, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that model as well.