The majority of reach trucks and forklifts come with many common security features, like seat belts on sit-down vehicles. Stand-up vehicles will almost always have dead-man petals. In addition, certain manufacturers are providing extra features such as speed controls which could decrease the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more info, there are numerous available articles about Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Service and Support
A big part of lift truck selection is to make certain that you maintain access to high levels of service and support. Each and every year, there seems to be a wider variety of new players within the lift truck industry. Even though they provide a decent lift truck design and a nice price, if they do not provide the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you need to be prepared for significant aggravation when the lift truck goes down. Each and every kind of lift truck goes down sooner or later and service, parts and general questions will probably have to be answered at some point.
Generally, you would want a local repair shop or dealer with a great supply of components for the particular model and make you are purchasing. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and take a look at their parts room in order to try to know how many parts they store. Make certain to ask that if they do not have the part you need, where would it come from? With a bit of luck, the answer would be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Furthermore, try to get some ideas as to how many of those particular units are currently being utilized in 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. Additionally, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that model too.