How and why should you prepare your forklift for scheduled maintenance?

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Forklift maintenance is an essential consideration for every business owner that uses forklifts. At Radnes Services Ltd, we offer a range of forklift maintenance services designed to fit in with the schedule of busy warehouses, factories, and fulfilment centres. There’s more to looking after a forktruck than just sending it off for maintenance, however. What do you need to know?

Your pre-maintenance checks

As a part of your fork lift maintenance routine, you should be in the habit of doing daily checks. These checks are done to ensure the vehicle is in proper working condition and can be invaluable for helping identify and isolate potential problems before they arise.

These checks aren’t just useful for daily forktruck maintenance, however, they’re also useful when you have your forklift booked in with us for repairs or servicing. When you contact us, we’ll arrange a time to suit you as best as possible. Before your forklift is sent off to us, however, you should invest a few minutes in having an experienced operator give it a thorough checking over before it’s loaded for transportation.

This is useful because it can give you an indication of the vehicle’s condition before it arrives. If you spot any problems with it, you can let us know, and we’ll be able to make sure those problems are addressed. We pride ourselves on turning around forklifts very quickly, as we know businesses depend on them, but that time can be reduced even further when we know in advance what issues a forklift has before arriving.

Another consideration is that knowing issues in advance can allow us to make sure we have a necessary part in stock before your forklift arrives. This means we’re able to know the problem area ahead of time and prepare the necessary parts, again reducing downtime.

Be sure to have a replacement lined up

When it comes to forklift maintenance, the important thing is planning for every eventuality. You may want to make sure, then, that you have a replacement forklift available to use while one is in for repairs or servicing. This can help keep your fleet mobile and ensure you’re able to still operate to capacity, even while taking ongoing forklift maintenance requirements into consideration.

This is where renting a forklift can come in useful, and as it happens, Radnes Services Ltd can also help you with that. We can provide you with a forklift that matches the spec of the one you’re having us collect as best as possible. Then you’ll be able to keep working to capacity. We can drop off the rented forklift, pick up your forklift, then when the forklift is repaired, bring it back and collect the hired forklift.

This takes the stress, the hassle, and the risk of downtime out of the equation. The last thing you want to do in a consistently busy period is have an operator without a forklift to use. This is going to mean a reduction in efficiency and deliveries not being processed in good time. You can avoid that risk entirely by arranging to hire a forklift and have the convenience of it being delivered for you.

One more consideration you should make is that you may have to have the forklift hired for longer than you first anticipated, so ensure both you and the hire contract are flexible to allow for this. The reason is that there may be issues with your forklift that are only discovered while it’s in for repair, which can cause an extension to the amount of time it’s in for. You, and the people hiring to you, should be prepared for this.

The good thing is that most hire contracts are flexible and can be extended sometimes on a daily basis.

Preparation is always key

For everything in life, it’s important to prepare, and sending your forklift off for maintenance is no different. You should always have a good idea of your forklift’s general condition before you send it off for maintenance, especially if you’re sending it for routine servicing.

Invest just a few minutes ensuring the forklift is thoroughly checked ahead of time, and you could be saving yourself a lot of stress in the long-run. You and the maintenance team will know what to expect when the forklift is further examined, and you’ll be able to have a much better idea of how long you’ll need to arrange a suitable replacement. You don’t want to think your forklift will be gone for two days, only for it to actually take five.

Looking after a forklift truck is easy when you invest in the services of a team of dedicated and professional experts. That’s why you should always contact the team at Radnes Services Ltd when it comes to keeping your forklift working reliably. Whether you just have one trusty workhorse or a whole fleet spread across several different sites, you can trust Radnes Services Ltd to keep it working as dependably as possible.

For hiring, buying, or maintaining a fork lift, Croyden Surrey businesses choose Radnes Services Ltd – and you should too.

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Material handling and the Covid-19 pandemic

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It is no surprise that the global pandemic has changed a lot of things across the world, in both our personal and professional lives. We have all been spending more time indoors, and those of us who go out to work have found new pressures and demands.

The impact has been felt especially strongly in certain sectors of the business world, with one of these being the material handling industry.

One may wonder why exactly the pandemic has caused such a sea change in the material handling industry. With skyrocketing needs that must be met, the sudden pressure has seen the industry struggling to meet demand.

Pandemic shopping habits

A leading reason for this spike in pressure is the increased demand for online shopping. Online shopping has been growing increasingly over the past twenty years, but this is the first time it has been widely essential for the general public.

Usually, most people will have split their shopping between the high street and buying online. However, since March 2020, this has become, at times, impossible. With the high street closing up during lockdowns and many unable to leave their houses due to shielding, pandemic online shopping has peaked, especially with sites like Amazon.

Increased online presence

As well as people ordering from established giants such as Amazon, many other shops that were perhaps not as prevalent in the online sphere have had to make the leap. This means hiring and training new workers in material handling so that demand can be met and smaller businesses can keep their doors open – if only virtually for the time being.

Shops that perhaps did not require warehouses before are now branching out and increasing the need for material handling. This industry has become a vital component of the “new normal” as we turn more and more to online solutions.

Warehousing requirements

People have been spending a lot more time ordering online, with Amazon warehouses busier than ever before. Warehousing demand has grown and grown over the past 12 months – which means more workers are needed in order to meet the needs placed on the eCommerce sector.

The material handling industry ensures that warehouses can get stock moved safely and keep the areas orderly for a quicker, cleaner turnaround. Ensuring that warehouses can meet the demands placed on them, fully trained and experienced material handling professionals are essential workers as they help warehouses to meet the demands which seem to only be growing as time goes by.

Hygiene and compliance

Covid-19 has not only caused a spike in online shopping trends, it has also led to the need for a larger focus on hygiene and a reduction of staff in certain areas. This has also impacted the staff in warehouses and those in the material handling industry.

Because of social distancing regulations, there is often a need for fewer staff to be working at any time, so those who are working are required to be fully trained and able to put in as much work as possible.

Having the correct equipment is also of vital importance – if a warehouse does not have enough heavy lifting equipment, this makes it harder to reach the higher targets set by changing consumer trends. For example, warehouses may need to increase the amount of forklift trucks that they have onsite, either temporarily as the pandemic goes on, or permanently if these customer trends continue in the future.

Meeting rising demand

As demand continues to rise, the material handling industry is integral to warehouses in a plethora of ways. With the eCommerce industry seeking more flexibility in supply chains and requiring more highly customised (and customisable) equipment and services.

Material handling offers essential support when it comes to the transportation of supplies and finished goods, the storage of stock, and even the distribution of both materials and goods across the country and beyond. With online shopping looking set to grow, material handling is becoming more and more innovative in order to meet the unique needs of each company.

How Radnes can help

With over forty years of experience, Radnes is a family run business which offers innovative and reliable solutions for those who need to hire, buy or repair forklift trucks.

With the increased usage of forklifting equipment, you may find that your trucks require more maintenance than usual, or that you simply need to hire more for busy periods. We will even advise you on the best forklift trucks to buy so that your purchase suits your business needs. If you are hiring new staff, we can supply you with training for the forklift trucks, and carry out safety inspections for your peace of mind.

Based near Croydon, Radnes is ready to meet the forklifting needs in the South East of England, all at a very competitive price for our reliable, friendly services.

If you have found your business struggling with Covid and handling, get in touch with Radnes to find out how we can help you to rise up and meet the new pressures that have come along with this far from average year.