If the Price of Material Handling Lift Trucks is Number One, then Why Isn’t the Investment Being Protected

Material handling lift trucks were the topic of discussion in a Peerless Research Group’s new “Lift Truck Acquisition and Usage Study,” which was conducted in May 2022. The study had a variety of topics and questions that were asked to 185 participants from Modern Material Handling subscribers. You can view the full study on Material Handling 247, but there was a question with a result that was interesting and potentially cause for concern. Let’s take a look at one of the survey results.

Characteristics Needed for Material Handling Lift Trucks

One of the research findings asked about the characteristics that are considered important when evaluating lift trucks for purchase or lease. This is a great question to ask the priorities for material handling lift trucks. Is everyone in alignment or where are the disparities.

As always price leads the conversation. Both in 2021 and 2022 it was dead even with 75% of the respondents share that this is the number one issue. The areas that showed an increase in 2022 were as follows:

• Service Response Time
• Comprehensive Flexible Service Agreements
• Financing Options
• Short Lead Time

Well, as SIERA.AI is a safety company, where does the audience stand on material handling lift truck safety? Doesn’t look so good. 62% of respondents in 2021 said it was the third most important aspect. In 2022 it dropped down to 54%. That’s not a little drop, that’s enough to take notice.

Any Guesses?

So why the drop in safety since there’s been big support for safety on material handling lift trucks for both OSHA compliance and pedestrian detection? That’s a question for you to answer. If price is an important factor for the facility and the company as a whole, then a forklift safety system should be at the top of the list. Why? Because a forklift safety system deters injuries, deaths to workers and pedestrians while also reducing equipment and product damage. What can that save? How about workers compensation, repairs to equipment as well as the facility itself. You also save on other costs such as temp workers due to leave of absence, doctor visits, new equipment costs and more. They say that the hard costs are upfront, but the soft costs can go on for years chipping away at overall profits.

OSHA Compliance

As we all know, OSHA compliance is vital to your company. If there’s ever an accident, the first thing they will look at are the forklift inspection reports. But let’s also remember they do serve another useful purpose: Keeping your material handling lift trucks running as efficiently and effectively as possible. By asking the questions that are important for your facility and ensuring they are answered as truthfully as possible certainly helps maintenance gain the upper hand in keeping the material handling lift trucks running safely.

How?

SIERA.AI Digital Forklift Inspection Checklist with Impact Detection is what will help get you there. The forklift safety system serves two purposes.

1. Ensure OSHA compliance and understand the health of the material handling lift truck with randomizing the questions, providing time limits on answering the questions, ensuring the operator credentials and more.
2. Track impacts of low, medium and high to gain a deeper understanding of what is being hit in the facility and is it a growing problem in a particular area(s).

These valuable insights help you gain a better understanding and control of the facility in order to keep it safe. So if the cost of forklift fleets are critical, then protect that investment with a forklift safety system.

Contact Us!

Contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.