There are a variety of safety features that are common to particular kinds of trucks including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On most stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals as well. Additionally, some manufacturers are offering more features like speed controls that could reduce the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more information, there are many articles available on Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Service and Support
Making certain you will maintain access to high levels of support and service is a very essential part of lift truck selection. There seem to be a variety of new players in the lift truck industry every year. Although they provide a good price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you must be prepared for significant stress when the forklift goes down. Every model of lift truck goes down eventually and parts, service and general questions must be answered at some point.
Usually, you would want a local repair shop or dealer with a great supply of components for the specific model and make you are buying. Be sure to visit the repair shop or the dealership and check their parts room so as to try to understand how many parts they store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the part you need, where will it come from? Hopefully, the answer would be from a regional or local distribution facility.
In addition, try to get some ideas as to how many of those particular models are presently 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. In addition, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that specific model too.