Vertical-mast and rough-terrain forklifts keep picking up and positioning different building materials on various jobsites even through the evolution and rise of telehandlers on the market. There are many conventional-style lift trucks offered within the material handling business which lost market share to telehandlers. This happened particularly when the challenger broke onto the construction scene. Since that time, sales numbers have become stable. Vertical-mast forklifts have re-emerged and seem to be becoming more popular again because of their greater efficiency, lower cost and adaptation of some telehandler-like features.
The straight mast lift truck can finish twice the job as a telehandler because of their superior maneuverability and handling in addition to their better ground speed. Interestingly enough, rental companies are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast units.
Rental buyers are having significant influence within the rough-terrain forklift business. Over half of all vertical-mast lift trucks are now being sold to a rental yard. These purchases are usually driven mostly by utilization, that is a factor closely followed by acquisition price.
The telehandler has become an extremely common equipment in the material handling business. Their popularity has given them a better advantage when it comes to rental utilization. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is several lift truck users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as helpful as opposed to conventional rough-terrain lift trucks for unloading and loading repetitive jobs. This means that although competition amongst telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, many prefer the RT forklifts that 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 finish the job. On the upside, they get the reach if they require it. There would always be a place within the business for lift trucks though, as there are locations which you could not access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain forklifts are generally compact machinery, smaller but more able to carry a heavier cargo vertically compared to the telehandler. Basically, so as to use the right machinery for your application, you would have to determine what jobs exactly you will be accomplishing, the kind of conditions and setting you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. These factors will help you decide what the right options available are.