Rough-terrain and vertical-mast forklifts keep lifting and placing various building materials on different jobsites even through the rise and evolution of telehandlers on the market. There are lots of traditional-style lift trucks offered within the material handling business which lost market share to telehandlers. This happened particularly when the challenger broke onto the construction scene. Ever since that time, sales numbers have become stable. Vertical-mast forklifts have re-emerged and seem to be becoming more popular again because of their greater productivity, alteration of certain telehandler-like features and low cost.
The straight mast lift truck could finish twice the work as a telehandler due to their superior handling and maneuverability as well as their better ground speed. Fascinatingly enough, rental companies are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast models.
Rental buyers are having major influence within the rough-terrain forklift industry. More than half of all vertical-mast forklifts are now being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are usually driven mostly by utilization, which is a factor closely followed by acquisition price.
The telehandler has become an extremely common machinery in the material handling business. Their popularity has given them a better advantage in terms of rental utilization. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is some forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as helpful as opposed to traditional rough-terrain lift trucks for unloading and loading repetitive jobs. This means that although competition amongst telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, a lot prefer the RT forklifts which have been working well for decades.
The telehandler is a bit slower machine in comparison to a rough terrain lift truck unit. They are also ganglier to use and needs a higher level of skill to complete the job. On the upside, they get the reach if they need it. There would always be a place in the business for forklifts though, since there are locations which you would not be able to access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain forklifts are usually compact machines, smaller but more able to lift a heavier load vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Basically, so as to utilize the best machinery for your application, you should determine what jobs exactly you would be accomplishing, the kind of circumstances and environment you will be operating in and what your load capacity is. All these factors would help you decide what the best alternatives available are.