There are a range of safety features which are common to particular types of trucks including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On most stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals also. In addition, some manufacturers are providing more features like for example speed controls that could reduce the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more information, there are numerous available articles about Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Support and Service
Making certain you would maintain access to high levels of service and support is a really essential part of lift truck selection. There seem to be a variety of new players in the forklift industry each year. Although they offer a good price and a decent lift truck design, if they do not provide the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you must be prepared for significant aggravation when the lift truck breaks. Each lift truck model goes down eventually and parts, service and general questions must be answered at some point.
You will usually want to have a nearby dealer or repair shop with a complete supply of the parts you require for your specific unit. Be sure to visit the repair shop or the dealership and take a look at their parts room so as to try to understand how many parts they store. Make sure to inquire that if they do not have the component you need, where would it come from? With any luck, the answer would be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Moreover, try to get some ideas as to how many of those particular units are presently being utilized in your area. This is really important for specialty trucks including turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks in use in their service area that you should assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. Also, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that specific model as well.