It is quite key for several businesses to examine the method of selecting a forklift. For example, will your company select consistently the same unit for your warehouse or dock work? If this is so, you might be missing out on a more efficient forklift. There could be various other models on the market which allow more to get done as they offer less fatigue to operators. You may be able to take advantage of loading trailers in a more effective manner. By doing some evaluation and research, you can determine if you have the right machinery to meet all of your requirements. By reducing operator fatigue, you could drastically increase your performance.
When determining forklift models that deal with your particular problems several of the important factors to consider may comprise:
Trailer Loading Frequency:
If your shipping department just loads out a few semi-trailers or box trucks per week, then you probably won't need a pricey lift truck to complete the tasks. An inexpensive walkie-rider or walkie model will be able to deal with the task if: A 4500 to 6000 pound capacity is enough and you do not need to stack loads inside the trailer. Last but not least, you should think about whether or not the transition from the dock floor to the dock leveler and into the trailer is not too jarring for the operator since the small load wheels must travel over the dock plate.
If on the other hand, your shipping facility is always loading trailers, than a stand-up end control would make more sense over a walkie model or a walkie-rider. These battery-powered forklifts easily fit into a standard 108 inch trailer door. Their masts enable in-trailer stacking. These kinds of forklifts provide a model capacity range from 3000 to 4000 lbs.
Operator Duties:
Each business has a slightly different system for material handling. In some circumstances, some forklift operators not only load trucks in the shipping department, but replenish the manufacturing line, store inventory on racks, handle the paperwork associated with the loads, attach and scan bar codes and other jobs. Usually, the forklift operators who are constantly on and off of their lift trucks in their shifts find it less fatiguing and much faster to exit a stand-up control unit, as opposed to a sit down kind.