Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling business, rough terrain forklifts and vertical mast lift trucks can be found picking up and transporting different products and materials on jobsites all around the globe. There have been many other conventional lift trucks that lost market share to telehandlers. This happened particularly when the challenger broke onto the construction scene. Since that time, sales numbers have stabilized. Vertical-mast lift trucks have re-emerged and seem to be becoming more popular once more thanks to their greater efficiency, lower cost and adaptation of certain telehandler-like features.
The straight mast lift truck can complete double the job as a telehandler because of their superior handling and maneuverability along with their better ground speed. Interestingly enough, rental companies are beginning to charge higher rates on straight-mast models.
Within the rough-terrain lift truck business, rental purchasers have been having a greater influence. Over half of all vertical-mast forklifts are presently being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are generally driven mainly by utilization, that is a factor closely followed by acquisition price.
The telehandler has become a very common machine in the material handling industry. Their popularity has given them a super advantage when it comes to rental use. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is several forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as useful as opposed to conventional rough-terrain lift trucks for unloading and loading repetitive tasks. This means that even though competition among telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, many choose the RT lift trucks which have been performing well for decades.
The telehandler is a little slower equipment in comparison to a rough terrain forklift unit. They are also ganglier to use and needs a higher level of skillfulness to complete the task. On the upside, they get the reach if they require it. There would always be a place within the industry for lift trucks though, since there are locations that you would not be able to access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain forklifts are usually compact machinery, smaller but more able to carry a heavier load vertically compared to the telehandler. Essentially, in order to utilize the right machine for your application, you must determine what jobs exactly you would be completing, the type of setting and conditions you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors would help you choose what the best options available are.