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 products and materials on jobsites all around the globe. There have been numerous other traditional lift trucks that lost market share to telehandlers. This happened particularly 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 once more because of their greater efficiency, modification of some telehandler-like features and low cost.
The straight mast forklift can complete two times the work as a telehandler because of their excellent handling and maneuverability along with their better ground speed. Fascinatingly enough, rental outfits are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast models.
In the rough-terrain forklift industry, rental buyers have been having a greater influence. Over 50 percent of all vertical-mast lift trucks are now being sold to a rental yard. These acquisitions are usually driven mainly by utilization, which is a factor closely followed by purchase price.
In the material handling industry, the telehandler has become the darling new equipment. Its popularity has improved its benefit in the rental market too. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is some lift truck users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as useful as opposed to traditional rough-terrain forklifts for loading and unloading repetitive jobs. This means that even though competition amongst telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, many prefer the RT forklifts which have been performing well for decades.
In comparison, the telehandler is a little slower, ganglier to operate and needs a higher level of skillfulness to finish the job. On the upside, they get the reach if they need it. There would continuously be a place within the industry for forklifts though, because there are places that you could not access with a telehandler.
The rough-terrain forklift is small, compact and able to carry a heavier cargo vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Essentially, in order to use the right machinery for your application, you should determine what tasks exactly you will be accomplishing, the type of setting and circumstances you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors would help you decide what the right options available are.