The majority of reach trucks and forklifts are available with a lot of common security features, including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will normally have dead-man petals. Additionally, certain manufacturers are offering extra features like speed controls which can reduce the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more information, there are numerous articles available about Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Service and Support
A big part of forklift 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 within the forklift industry. Even though they offer a good price and a decent lift truck design, if they do not provide the local or regional service and support infrastructure, you should be prepared for major aggravation when the lift truck goes down. Every lift truck model goes down eventually and service, parts and general questions would probably have to be answered at some point.
Generally, you would want a local dealer or repair shop with a huge supply of components for the particular make and model you are buying. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and check their parts room so as to try to understand how many parts they store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the part you require, where will it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer will be from a regional or local distribution facility.
In addition, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific models are currently being used within your vicinity. This is very vital for specialty trucks including turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being used in their service area that you should assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. Moreover, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that model as well.