Lift truck makers banking on fleet management
I’m doing research for an article on lift truck trends for next year, and most of the OEMs and dealers I’m interviewing are talking more about fleet management than iron and steel. Sure, there’ll be plenty of new features available on next year’s models, but if you can’t justify their purchase, what good are they?
That’s why OEMs and their dealers have made their own substantial investments in the R&D necessary to put information into their customers’ hands and heads.
“Operator displays are becoming standard features to alert the operator something may be going wrong before a severe condition takes place,” said Paul Fiala, manager of product marketing and training for MCFA. “That means problems will get taken care of sooner and there will be less downtime and repair to engines and transmissions.”
Duncan Murphy, president of Riekes Equipment Company, a Yale dealer headquartered in Omaha, NE told me that fleet management is evolving from an occasionally used tool to a critical catalyst in reducing costs.
“Current end users remain under heavy cost containment pressure,” he said. “Providing a solution that clearly documents continuous cost improvement is opening eyes.”
These tools can make fleet utilization savings visible. Maria Schwietrman, a marketing product manager at Crown, referred to “those things that keep you up at night” when addressing some of the human factors associated with fleet management—things like knowing that all your operators are certified for the trucks they’re on or that inspection checklists are being filed and documented.
“Instead of these things being completely separate from lift truck operation, now they’re part of it,” she said.
Interestingly, some of the companies I’m talking to acknowledge that focusing on information management might take away from their unit sales at first, but they see it as a first step toward wider spread fleet upgrades. In other words, they’re banking on their customers making strategic long term plans.
Why not? Many lift truck sellers and buyers have already hit bottom. Scott Johnson, director of dealer services for Clark Material Handling Co., says he’s optimistic about where the industry is headed.
“Once you find where the bottom is you can manage your business up,” he explained.
Tom Andel
