There are a variety of security features which are common to certain types of trucks including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On the majority of stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals also. Furthermore, some manufacturers are offering more features such as speed controls that can decrease the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more info, there are numerous available articles about Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Support and Service
Making certain you would maintain access to high levels of service and support is a really important part of forklift selection. There seem to be a range of new players in the lift truck industry every year. Even though they provide a nice price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you need to be prepared for significant aggravation when the forklift goes down. Each and every model of lift truck goes down sooner or later and parts, service and general questions would probably need to be answered at some point.
Generally, you will want a local repair shop or dealer with a huge supply of components for the specific model and make you are purchasing. Be sure 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 inquire that if they do not have the part you require, where will it come from? With any luck, the answer would be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Additionally, try to get some ideas as to how many of those particular units are currently being used in your area. This is really vital 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. In addition, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that model as well.