There are times it pays to examine the process of selecting a lift truck. For instance, does your company always choose the same units for your dock work? If so, you can potentially miss out on a more effective truck. There could be various other models existing on the market that provide less exhaustion to operators and enable more to get done. You may be able to take advantage of loading trailers in a more cost-effective way. By doing some evaluation and research, you can determine if you have the right machine to suit all of your needs. By reducing operator exhaustion, you can drastically increase your performance.
When determining forklift units that deal with your specific problems several of the important factors to consider could include:
Trailer Loading Frequency:
You probably won't need a pricey forklift to complete jobs if your shipping and receiving department loads only a few box trucks or semi-trailers per week. A cheaper walkie-rider or walkie unit will be able to deal with the task if: You do not need to stack loads in the trailer, and a 4500 to 6000 pound capacity is adequate. Last of all, 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 have to travel over the dock plate.
If on the other hand, your shipping facility is always loading trailers, than a stand-up end control will make more sense over a walkie model or a walkie-rider. These battery-powered forklifts easily fit into a standard 108 inch trailer door. Their masts allow in-trailer stacking. These forklifts provide a model capacity range from 3000 to 4000 pounds.
Operator Duties:
For material handling needs, every company has a slightly different system. Several lift truck operators would often load and unload products 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 jobs. Generally, the forklift operators who are always on and off of their lift trucks in their shifts find it a lot faster and less fatiguing to exit a stand-up control model, as opposed to a sit down kind.