Most forklifts and lift trucks come with lots of common security features, like seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles would normally have dead-man petals. Moreover, certain manufacturers are providing extra features like speed controls which can decrease the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more information, there are numerous articles available on Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Support and Service
A huge part of lift truck selection is to make sure that you maintain access to high levels of support and service. Each and every year, there seems to be a wider variety of new players in the forklift business. Even though they provide a decent lift truck design and a good price, if they do not provide the regional or local support and service infrastructure, you should be prepared for major aggravation when the forklift goes down. Each model of lift truck goes down at some point and service, parts and general questions must be answered at some point.
Normally, you will want a local dealer or repair shop with a huge supply of components for the specific make and model you are buying. Be sure to visit the dealership or the repair shop and take a look at their parts room so as to try to know how many parts they stock. Make sure to inquire that if they do not have the part you require, where would it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer will be from a local or regional distribution facility.
In addition, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific models are presently being used within your area. This is very important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being utilized in their service area that you should assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. Additionally, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that particular model as well.