Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling market, rough terrain lift trucks and vertical mast forklifts could be found picking up and transporting various items and supplies on jobsites all over the world. There have been numerous other standard lift trucks which lost market share to telehandlers. This occurred especially 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 production, modification of certain telehandler-like features and low cost.
Straight-mast machinery would finish twice the work that a telehandler will do because of their ground speed and maneuverability. Interestingly enough, rental companies are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast models.
Rental buyers are having major influence within the rough-terrain lift truck industry. Over 50 percent of all vertical-mast forklifts are currently being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are normally driven mostly by utilization, that is a factor closely followed by acquisition price.
The telehandler has become an extremely popular machinery in 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 several forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as productive as opposed to conventional rough-terrain lift trucks for unloading and loading repetitive jobs. This means that even if competition amongst telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, a lot choose the RT lift trucks which have been working well for decades.
In comparison, the telehandler is ganglier, a little slower to operate and requires a higher level of skill to finish the task. On the upside, they get the reach if they need it. There will always be a place within the industry for forklifts though, because there are locations which you would not be able to access with a telehandler.
The rough-terrain lift truck is small, compact and could carry a heavier load vertically compared to the telehandler. Basically, in order to use the best machinery for your application, you must determine what tasks exactly you will be completing, the kind of environment and conditions you will be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors would help you decide what the best options available are.