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Sustainability and Your Used Forklifts
Sustainability is one of the hottest topics of the decade. Environmental sustainability is an important issue for everyone, and if you are a business owner or manager, business sustainability is vitally important to you, too.
Environmental sustainability and business sustainability go hand-in-hand because sustainability, in general, is related to the conservation and efficient use of resources. Once upon a time, gas and other resources were cheap, but that time past long ago and the “good old days” are not likely to be coming back any time soon. The energy we need to run our businesses is a significant part of our monthly expenditures and we need to use energy wisely and frugally.
Image courtesy of Toyota Forklift – Bahrns ToyotaLift is an award-winning Toyota Forklift Dealership
Sustainability and Your Used Forklifts
Forklift manufacturers take sustainability into account when they design new forklifts. Today’s forklifts, whether IC or electric, are quite a bit more energy efficient than they were in the past. Does that mean you should scrap your used forklifts? No — for a couple of reasons:
1. It takes valuable resources to manufacture a forklift. Sustainability is all about making what you have last as long as possible.
2. A brand new forklift is not energy efficient enough to merit the expenditure if you have a well-maintained used forklift.
There are two keys to sustainability when it comes to used forklifts:
1. Your choice of forklift
2. Maintenance
Electric used forklifts are the clear winners when it comes to sustainability. They are cheaper to run than IC forklifts and do not consume fossil fuels, so they win out on both the environmental and business sides of the sustainability argument.
On the downside, used electric forklifts are not as powerful as used IC forklifts. An electric forklift isn’t going to help your business sustainability if it is not able to do the jobs you need it to do.
When you compare the fuel efficiency of two IC diesel or propane used forklifts, one is likely to be more fuel-efficient than the other — sometimes dramatically so. Why? It usually comes down to maintenance. A well-maintained lift truck doesn’t have to work as hard as a poorly maintained one. Therefore, it will be more fuel-efficient. Even if it’s only 5% more fuel-efficient, that adds up to greater savings than the price of maintenance.
Even more importantly, a well-maintained forklift operates more efficiently than a neglected forklift and experiences less downtime. The benefits to your business sustainability can be enormous if you make used forklift maintenance a priority.
Buying a Used Forklift
Image courtesy of iStock by Getty Images – Photo by Ziga Plahutar
If you need to buy a forklift, should you buy a new forklift or a used one? For many business owners, the most sustainable answer lies somewhere in the middle. A quality reconditioned forklift will operate as efficiently as most new lift trucks but at a fraction of the cost. The keyword there, though, is quality. Here at reconditionedforklifts.com, we sell Toyota Certified Reconditioned Forklifts, so the quality is guaranteed by the largest and most respected forklift manufacturer in the world.
Sustainability is something we should all think about every day, not just because we care about the environment, but because we care about our business’s success as well. A used forklift can be your business’s best asset, but it can be an even more valuable asset if you use it sustainably.
