Forklift costs: Which cost should you focus on?

The forklift is an integral part of many manufacturing and storage facilities as forklifts are highly useful machines for material handling applications. Due to this reason, many organizations employ a large fleet of forklifts in their facilities. In such cases, the cost of forklifts becomes a significant expense as purchasing, using and maintaining a large number of forklifts involves various costs. Since cost cutting is an important objective of many business organizations, focusing on the forklift cost can help in realizing that goal. Let’s find out which of the forklift costs should you focus on.

The forklift costs is not limited to the cost of purchasing it. It extends further beyond that into years of using the forklift. To begin with, these costs can be classified into hard costs and soft costs. Hard costs are all the fixed costs that are not easy to bring down, and can only be reduced by a small degree. Hard costs include expenses such as the cost of fuel, cost of electricity needed to charge the forklift batteries and salaries of forklift drivers. These forklift costs are predictable as they are fixed recurring expenses.

Soft costs, on the other hand, are all the additional costs that can be controlled to higher degrees. Soft costs are not very predictable, and include expenses such as repairs of forklifts, accidental damage and drops in productivity due to driver fatigue or inadequate training. It’s easier to reduce soft costs as compared to hard costs. Thus, you should focus on these if you are looking for ways to cut costs.

Other than the cost of purchase, there are other costs that add up during the lifetime of a truck. These are:

Maintenance costs

These include cost of servicing, repair, accidental damage and preventative maintenance. Maintenance costs can differ in different kinds of machines. For example, the maintenance cost of electric forklifts is significantly lower than internal combustion forklifts.

Operating costs

The operating costs include the cost of fuel or electricity, cost of safety upgrades and cost of training the drivers. Again, the cost of electricity in electric forklifts is generally lower than the cost of fuel in internal combustion forklifts.

Attachments and accessories cost

These are the cost of accessories and attachments that go in your forklift. This also includes the cost of spare parts of the truck. At times, you might get lured by the attractive pricing of a forklift manufacturer. But when you actually go to purchase the forklift, you realize the truck’s stated price is without the necessary attachments. When you add all the options you need, the price shoots up higher than what was advertised. Thus, it’s important to be careful of these costs.

There are various factors that affect the cost of your forklift in the long run. These include the forklift’s reliability, mileage, performance, maintenance, ergonomic/safety considerations and the supplier’s service. Being aware of all the factors while purchasing a forklift will ensure that your costs are controlled in the long run. This way, your fleet of forklifts can be cost-efficient. Learn more