The majority of forklifts and lift trucks come with lots of common security features, like seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles would usually have dead-man petals. In addition, certain manufacturers are offering extra features like for example speed controls that can decrease the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more info, there are many articles available about Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Support and Service
A big part of forklift selection is to make certain that you maintain access to high levels of support and service. Every year, there seems to be a wider variety of new players in the lift truck business. Although they provide a decent lift truck design and a nice price, if they do not offer the local or regional service and support infrastructure, you should be ready for major aggravation when the lift truck goes down. Each lift truck model goes down sooner or later and parts, service and general questions will probably need to be addressed at some point.
You would usually want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a complete supply of the components you need for your specific model. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and take a look at their parts room so as to try to understand how many parts they store. Make certain to ask that if they do not have the part you need, where will it come from? Hopefully, the answer will be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Moreover, try to get some ideas as to how many of those specific units are currently being utilized 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 might not be stocking many if any parts for them. In addition, they may have very little overall experience in servicing that model as well.