Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling market, rough terrain forklifts and vertical mast forklifts could be found picking up and transporting various products and materials on jobsites all around the globe. There have been many other traditional lift trucks that lost market share to telehandlers. This happened specially 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 efficiency, lower cost and modification of certain telehandler-like features.
Straight-mast machines will complete double the job that a telehandler would do because of their ground speed and maneuverability. Interestingly enough, rental companies are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast units.
Rental buyers are having major influence within the rough-terrain forklift industry. More than 50 percent of all vertical-mast forklifts are currently being sold to a rental yard. These acquisitions are generally driven mainly by utilization, that is a factor closely followed by acquisition price.
In the material handling industry, the telehandler has become the darling new equipment. Its popularity has improved its benefit in the rental market as well. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is several forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not nearly as productive as opposed to conventional rough-terrain lift trucks for unloading and loading repetitive jobs. This means that although competition amongst telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, a lot choose the RT forklifts which have been performing 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 requires a higher level of skill to complete the task. On the upside, they get the reach if they need it. There will continuously be a place within the business for lift trucks however, since there are locations that you can not access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain lift trucks are normally compact equipment, smaller but more able to carry a heavier cargo vertically compared to the telehandler. Basically, so as to use the right machine for your application, you would need to determine what jobs exactly you will be accomplishing, the type of setting and conditions you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors would help you decide what the best options available are.