The majority of forklifts and lift trucks come with many common security features, including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will normally have dead-man petals. Furthermore, certain manufacturers are offering more features like for example speed controls which can decrease the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more information, there are many available articles on Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Service and Support
Making sure you would maintain access to high levels of support and service is a really vital part of forklift selection. There seem to be a variety of new players within the forklift business each year. Although they provide a good price and a decent forklift design, if they do not offer the local or regional support and service infrastructure, you should be prepared for major aggravation when the forklift breaks. Each and every lift truck model goes down at some point and service, parts and general questions should be answered at some point.
You would generally want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a complete supply of the components you require for your particular model. Be certain 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 store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the component you need, where will it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer would be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Moreover, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific models are presently being utilized within your area. This is really important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being used in their service area that you must assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. What's more, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that model too.