Even after the rise and explosion of telehandlers on the material handling industry, rough terrain lift trucks and vertical mast lift trucks can be found lifting and transporting various products and materials on jobsites all around the globe. There have been many other traditional lift trucks which lost market share to telehandlers. This happened specially when the challenger broke onto the construction scene. Since that time, sales numbers have stabilized. Vertical-mast lift trucks have re-surfaced and seem to be becoming more popular again because of their greater efficiency, modification of certain telehandler-like features and low cost.
Straight-mast machinery would complete double the work which a telehandler would do due to their ground speed and maneuverability. Fascinatingly enough, rental companies are starting to charge higher rates on straight-mast units.
In the rough-terrain lift truck industry, rental purchasers have been having a greater influence. More than half of all vertical-mast lift trucks are currently 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 popular machinery in the material handling industry. Their popularity has given them a super advantage in terms of rental utilization. Their overall expansion has been moderated by their higher price. There is several forklift users who feel that telehandlers are not practically as helpful compared to traditional rough-terrain forklifts for loading and unloading repetitive tasks. This means that even if competition amongst telehandler marketers has lowered their prices, a lot prefer the RT lift trucks that have been performing well for decades.
The telehandler is a bit slower machine in comparison to a rough terrain forklift model. They are also ganglier to utilize and requires a higher level of skillfulness to complete the task. On the upside, they get the reach if they need it. There would always be a place within the industry for lift trucks though, since there are locations which you would not be able to access with a telehandler.
Rough terrain lift trucks are usually compact equipment, smaller but more able to carry a heavier load vertically as opposed to the telehandler. Basically, so as to utilize the best machine for your application, you will have to determine what tasks exactly you will be completing, the type of environment and circumstances you would be operating in and what your load capacity is. All these factors will help you choose what the best alternatives available are.