Don't Forget the Forklift! Your Business May Depend on this Vital Materials Handler

A key member of the vehicle fleet at storage facilities, warehouses, and large retail and wholesale operations is the humble forklift, an oft-overlooked piece of commercial equipment designed to load and unload pallets of materials and place them whereever they're needed at a given facility. More exotic varieties such as all-terrain forklifts can be found in rugged locations where they play a vital role in outdoor construction and resource extraction projects.

Top forklift makers include companies such as Nissan, Toyota, Crown, Daewoo, Cat, and Komatsu. A vast array of forklift models are currently on the market, and determining the best lift for your operation will require careful consideration of the types of jobs you'll be using it for.

Will your forklift be used exclusively indoors in a warehouse or similar setting, moving pallets of several hundred pounds to and from shelving and storage? Then a light electric forklift is most likely the best choice. However, if you'll be loading and unloading massive pallets from trucks, aircraft, or other vehicles, and operating in an outdoor environment, a larger gas or diesel forklift will provide the capabilities you'll need.

For short-term projects, the most cost-effective option may be to lease rather than purchase a forklift. Equipment rental companies such as Hertz have extensive inventories of construction and industrial forklifts, and renting a lift will save the additional costs and headaches of insuring and repairing the forklift.

As with any major piece of industrial machinery, forklifts can be dangerous if handled by an inexperienced operator. So your first step before putting your lift into service should be to ensure that your forklift drivers have been rigorously trained by qualified instructors.