The forklift tire is critical to forklift safety [provides stability] and for protecting the operator and the forklift itself from vibrations by acting as the forklift's only form of shock absorption. The forklift tire is subject to harm through the environment it works in, operational patterns, and to some extent, operator abuse. With information from Toyota Forklift tire supplier Camso, we have put together a group of articles that work to explain tire problems, their causes and possible solutions. Our first piece was "The Troubles With Forklift Tires", followed by "More Trouble with Forklift Tires" and "Secrets Your Parents Never Told You About Forklift Tire Failure" With a little understanding of what might go wrong with a tire, there is potential to correct circumstances before tire problems occur. While tire failures aren't often catastrophic, they are disruptive and costly.

Forklift fleet data is often overwhelming. Even with modest fleet numbers, scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance can quickly build a mountain of paperwork and data that can be difficult if not impossible to interpret. If an individual responsible for fleet maintenance isn't able to spend a large amount of time managing this data, opportunities for understanding and using the data to enable business decisions is lost. Managing a forklift fleet goes beyond measuring costs, it involves measuring equipment productivity, optimizing fleet size, vendor capabilities and yes, incorporating technologies to aid you in making decisions based on known fleet facts and analytics. Where is the opportunity you need to enable yourself to do all this?

The rate charged by a rental company for a forklift is such a small part of the total cost of running that forklift that it is almost irrelevant. On a 2.5 ton I.C. truck, the rental rate will only be about 10% of the total running cost of the forklift (if you consider wages and on-costs).

Presume rental rate of $180 per week, fuel cost at $200, supervision at $70 and the cost of an operator at roughly $1,350 and you have a total of $1,800 per week. That means the rental rate is only 10.0% of that total cost.

To reduce this total cost is extremely difficult as the reduction of the rental rate has little significance. A 10% reduction of the rental rate only reduces the total cost by 1.0%.

While it is difficult to reduce the total cost of the operation, it is possible to greatly improve the productivity of the forklift and, consequently, improve the cost per hour by up to 33%, dramatically increasing value for money.

A warehouse rack system is a humble part of any storage operation that can quietly make or break its success. While that may sound dramatic, it's a fact that in a warehouse or distribution center a rack system is at the core of operations. It's involved in several stages of operations and it follows that it should be carefully considered.

The good news is warehouse racking systems are available in many different configurations. Most can be customized to suit your warehouse's specific space and business needs, fill the cube and operate in most any way you'd like. Whether you are storing pallets, beverage loads, heavy components, furniture, food, cartons or any other load, rack systems can be designed to fit your application.

To get a better idea of the ideal configuration (which may involve different types of rack systems), first examine these six application factors. Then, we'll discuss a variety of rack options and the type of warehouse they work best in.