One can find a variety of security features which are common to certain types of trucks such as seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On the majority of stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals also. In addition, some manufacturers are offering more features such as speed controls which are able to reduce the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more info, there are many articles available on Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Support and Service
A big part of lift truck selection is to make sure that you maintain access to high levels of service and support. Each year, there seems to be a wider variety of new players within the forklift business. Although they provide a good price and a decent forklift design, if they do not offer the regional or local service and support infrastructure, you must be ready for significant stress when the forklift breaks. Each lift truck model goes down sooner or later and service, parts and general questions would probably have to be addressed at some point.
You will usually want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a complete supply of the components you need for your specific model. Be certain to visit the dealership or the repair shop and check their parts room so as to try to know how many parts they stock. Make certain to inquire that if they do not have the part you need, where would it come from? Hopefully, the answer would be from a local or regional distribution facility.
Try to get some additional ideas on the units currently used in your area. This is doubly essential for specialty trucks such as turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks in use in their service area that you must assume they might not be stocking many if any parts for them. In addition, they can have very little overall experience in servicing that particular model too.