Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling industry, rough terrain forklifts and vertical mast forklifts can be found picking up and transporting different items and supplies on jobsites all over the globe. There have been numerous other traditional lift trucks that lost market share to telehandlers. This happened specially when the competition broke onto the construction scene. Since that time, sales numbers have become stable. Vertical-mast lift trucks have re-surfaced and seem to be becoming more popular again because of their greater production, lower cost and modification of certain telehandler-like features.
The straight mast lift truck can complete twice the job as a telehandler because of their excellent handling and maneuverability in addition to their better ground speed. Fascinatingly enough, rental outfits are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast models.
Rental buyers are having significant influence in the rough-terrain lift truck industry. More than half of all vertical-mast forklifts are presently being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are normally driven mostly by utilization, which is a factor closely followed by purchase price.
The telehandler has become a very common machine within 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 lift truck users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as useful as opposed to traditional rough-terrain lift trucks for loading and unloading repetitive jobs. This means that although competition among telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, many choose the RT lift trucks that have been working well for decades.
In comparison, the telehandler is ganglier, a little slower to operate and requires a higher level of skillfulness to complete the task. On the upside, they get the reach if they require it. There would continuously be a place in the business for lift trucks however, since there are places that you will not be able to access with a telehandler.
The rough-terrain lift truck is small, compact and can carry a heavier load vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Essentially, in order to use the right machine for your application, you should determine what tasks exactly you will be accomplishing, the kind of circumstances and setting you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors would help you decide what the right alternatives available are.