Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling industry, rough terrain forklifts and vertical mast lift trucks can be found lifting and moving various products and supplies on jobsites all around the world. There have been numerous other conventional lift trucks which lost market share to telehandlers. This happened particularly when the challenger broke onto the construction scene. Ever since that time, sales numbers have stabilized. Vertical-mast forklifts have re-surfaced and seem to be becoming more popular again because of their greater efficiency, lower cost and modification of certain telehandler-like features.
The straight mast forklift could finish twice the work as a telehandler because of their excellent maneuverability and handling along with their better ground speed. Interestingly enough, rental companies are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast units.
Rental purchasers are having significant influence within the rough-terrain lift truck industry. More than half of all vertical-mast lift trucks are now being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are generally driven mostly by utilization, which is a factor closely followed by purchase price.
The telehandler has become a very common machinery within the material handling business. Their popularity has given them a super advantage when it comes to rental utilization. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is several forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as helpful as opposed to conventional rough-terrain forklifts for loading and unloading repetitive jobs. This means that even though competition among telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, many prefer the RT lift trucks which have been performing well for decades.
In comparison, the telehandler is a little slower, ganglier to operate and requires a higher level of skillfulness to finish the job. On the upside, they get the reach if they require it. There will always be a place in the industry for forklifts however, since there are places that you would not be able to access with a telehandler.
The rough-terrain lift truck is small, compact and could carry a heavier load vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Basically, in order to use the right equipment for your application, you should determine what tasks precisely you would be accomplishing, the type of conditions and environment you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors will help you decide what the right options available are.