Sometimes, it pays to examine the method of selecting a forklift. Like for instance, does your business always select the same units for your dock work? If so, you can potentially miss out on a more efficient truck. There might be other units available on the market that provide less exhaustion to operators and enable more to get done. You might be able to take advantage of loading trailers in a more effective manner. By doing some research and evaluation, you could determine if you have the right machinery to meet all your needs. By reducing operator exhaustion, you could drastically increase your performance.
When determining forklift models that address your specific concerns some of the important factors to think about may include:
Trailer Loading Frequency:
You probably won't need an expensive forklift to accomplish tasks if your shipping and receiving department loads just a few box trucks or semi-trailers per week. A cheaper walkie-rider or walkie model would be able to deal with the task if: A 4500 to 6000 pound capacity is adequate and you are not required to stack loads in the trailer. Last but not least, you must 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 as the small load wheels must travel over the dock plate.
If your shipping facility is consistently loading trailers on the other hand, a stand-up end control unit could make more sense over a walkie model or a walkie-rider. These battery-powered forklifts fit into a standard 108 inch trailer door with no trouble. Their masts allow in-trailer stacking. These kinds of forklifts provide a model capacity range from 3000 to 4000 pounds.
Operator Duties:
For material handling needs, every business has a slightly different system. Several lift truck operators would usually load and unload goods in the shipping department as well as storing items on inventory racks, replenish the manufacturing line, handle the paperwork associated with the loads, attach and scan bar codes and other tasks. Usually, the forklift operators who are constantly on and off of their forklifts in their shifts find it much faster and less fatiguing to exit a stand-up control model, rather than a sit down type.