Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling industry, rough terrain forklifts and vertical mast lift trucks can be found picking up and transporting various items and materials on jobsites around the globe. There have been many other traditional lift trucks which lost market share to telehandlers. This occurred especially when the competition broke onto the construction scene. Since that time, sales numbers have become stable. Vertical-mast forklifts have re-surfaced and seem to be becoming more popular once more because of their greater efficiency, modification of some telehandler-like features and low cost.
Straight-mast machinery will finish twice the work that a telehandler will do because of their ground speed and maneuverability. Interestingly enough, rental outfits are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast units.
Within the rough-terrain lift truck industry, rental buyers have been having a greater influence. Over half of all vertical-mast lift trucks are presently being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are generally driven mostly by use, which is a factor closely followed by acquisition price.
The telehandler has become an extremely common equipment within the material handling business. Their popularity has given them a better advantage in terms of rental utilization. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is some forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as productive as opposed to traditional rough-terrain forklifts for unloading and loading repetitive tasks. This means that although competition among telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, a lot choose the RT forklifts which have been working well for decades.
In comparison, the telehandler is ganglier, a little slower to operate and needs a higher level of skill to complete the job. On the upside, they get the reach if they require it. There will continuously be a place within the industry for forklifts though, as there are places which you could not access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain forklifts are generally compact equipment, smaller but more able to carry a heavier load vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Basically, so as to utilize the best machine for your application, you will have to determine what jobs exactly you would be completing, the type of environment and circumstances you will be operating in and what your load capacity is. All these factors will help you choose what the right alternatives available are.