If you are considering buying a forklift for your company, then you'll want to wait until you're sure that this is the right purchase to make. If you aren't sure, then you don't want to commit to the purchase cost just yet.
As an alternative, you could try hiring a forklift first. This may help you make up your mind. What are the advantages of hiring a forklift rather than buying one?
Assess Whether You Need a Forklift
Like most significant machines and equipment, forklifts are not a low-cost outright purchase. To make sure that you spend your company's money wisely, you need to be sure that your forklift usage will justify its purchase cost.
If you hire a forklift for a period of time, you can assess how much you use it and how useful it is. If the forklift doesn't turn out to be essential for you right now, you simply return it at the end of the hire period. Or, you could continue to hire a forklift when you do need one in the future.
Sometimes, it quickly becomes obvious that you really would benefit from having a permanent forklift on site. If this happens, you can talk to your hire company about leasing or buying your own model.
Try Different Forklifts
While all forklifts do the same kind of work, you have many different brands, models and sizes to chose from. Some forklifts are also more feature-rich than others. If you make a mistake when you buy a forklift, then this could hit you financially.
For example, if you opt for a basic model, it may not be able to do everything you need it to do, and you may need to upgrade it pretty quickly. However, if you pay more for an advanced model with features you don't use, then you'll spend more than you needed to.
If you don't know what kind of forklift to buy, then hiring a machine and trying it out will help. You'll learn more about brands, models and features by actually using a forklift. There's no reason why you can't hire different models at different times to see how they all work. This can help you make a more informed purchasing decision down the line.
Forklift hire doesn't require a long-term commitment. You can hire a machine for anywhere from a few hours to a semi-permanent basis. To find out more, talk to your local forklift hire company.
Share16 January 2019
Heavy construction equipment can be quite expensive to replace, so it's important to maintain it properly. That involves doing some regular maintenance according to the correct service schedules as well as making sure that your operators know how to operate the equipment correctly. If you maintain your equipment, this maintenance can end up saving your business a lot of money down the track when you can extend the usable life of the equipment that you rely on. This blog has some tips on how you can easily maintain heavy construction equipment, including how you can train operates to extend lifecycles with sensible machine operation.