There are a range of security features that are common to particular kinds of trucks such as seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On the majority of stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals also. Additionally, some manufacturers are providing extra features like speed controls that are able to decrease the overall speed based on steering angle and load height. For more info, there are numerous articles available about Lift Truck Safety and Loading Dock Safety.
Support and Service
Making sure you will maintain access to high levels of service and support is a hugely essential part of forklift selection. There seem to be a range of new players in the forklift business each year. Even if they provide a nice price and a decent forklift design, if they do not provide the local or regional support and service infrastructure, you must be ready for significant aggravation when the forklift breaks. Every model of lift truck goes down at some point and parts, service and general questions will probably have to be addressed at some point.
You would normally want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a complete supply of the components you need for your particular model. Be sure to visit the repair shop or the dealership and check their parts room in order to try to know how many parts they store. Make sure to ask that if they do not have the part you require, where will it come from? With any luck, the answer would be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the models currently utilized in your vicinity. This is doubly vital for specialty trucks such as turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks being utilized in their service area that you must assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. Moreover, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that specific model too.