There are actually a range of safety features which are common to certain types of trucks including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On most stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals as well. In addition, some manufacturers are offering extra features like speed controls that can decrease the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more information, there are many available articles about Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Service and Support
A big part of forklift selection is to make sure that you maintain access to high levels of service and support. Each and every year, there seems to be a wider array of new players within the lift truck industry. Although they offer a good price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you must be prepared for significant stress when the lift truck breaks. Each lift truck model goes down sooner or later and parts, service and general questions must be answered at some point.
Normally, you would want a local repair shop or dealer with a huge supply of parts for the specific model and make you are purchasing. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and take a look at their parts room so as to try to know how many parts they store. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the component you need, where will it come from? With any luck, the answer will be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the units currently utilized in your area. This is doubly important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being utilized in their service area that you should assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. Additionally, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that specific model too.