Is it Time to Say Goodbye to Your Forklift?
Face it, that ‘92 Jeep Cherokee was a great car, but now that it’s been spending more time in the shop than on the road, it’s time to pull the plug. The same goes for your forklift.
Forklift lifespan is measured in two ways–economic life and useful life. Economic life is determined by measuring how much productivity you’re getting out of your forklift against what it costs to keep it going. If you’ve been keeping up an accurate fleet maintenance program, you can probably determine this point pretty closely. Useful life is for those diehards who keep sinking money into an older forklift as long as they can keep it patched up and working. Naturally, older forklifts will reach the end of their economic lives much earlier than the end of their useful lives. If your goal is to maximize productivity, the smart move is to replace your forklift at the end of its economic life. Your old forklift may have some residual value as a trade-in or can be sold to a refurbisher.
If your forklifts have names like “Bessie” and “Jake,” you’re probably going to run them until the absolute end of their useful lives, and they’ll need to be hauled off your property on a flatbed. The problem is: You can’t simply put them out at the curb for garbage pick up.
Safety and liability are also issues. As forklifts age, their power curves diminish, and they can become intermittent; they can hesitate and lurch, creating a dangerous safety situation. Mechanical and hydraulic parts, like hoses, chains, forks and masts are items that, if they fail, can have catastrophic consequences. The safety devices on older forklifts, like lights, horns, safety belts, and non-slip flooring, may have worn out, making them hazardous to operate for both the forklift driver and warehouse workers in the vicinity. You need to decide if the legal liability is worth squeezing the last few days or weeks out of a past-its-prime vehicle.
So what are the steps in ushering a forklift out of your facility?
Let’s take a look.
If you’ve decided that your forklift is at the end of its economic life but still has some useful life in it, you have a few options:
- Trade it in – Just like automobiles, you’ll probably get a higher net return by trading your forklift in, especially to the dealer you purchased it from. And you’ll wind up with a brand new shiny forklift with all the latest bells and whistles.
- Sell it to a refurbisher – These companies specialize in taking older forklifts that are basically in solid shape, replacing whatever parts need replacing and then reselling them.
- Keep it as a spare – or use it for lighter-duty tasks. If it still works but just doesn’t have the lifting capacity it had when you first purchased it, there still may be tasks around the warehouse that it might be suited for.
If there’s no way that “Jake” is going to make it, then how do you safely dispose of him?
- You may still be able to sell Jake to a refurbisher or recycler if it has useful parts.
- You can locate a scrap dealer who may buy the forklift as is, or want to purchase some parts.
If the forklift is going to sit around your facility for a while before it can be recycled, be sure to remove the battery, drain all fuels and fluids, and remove the propane tank if it has one. Making sure that all possible parts of a dead forklift are recycled is the responsible thing to do and will result in less toxic landfills that the next generation will have to deal with.
If you need to dispose of an old, end-of-life forklift, Apex can help you determine the next step. We can either take it off your hands and remove the headache of disposal or point you to a resource, like a scrap dealer, where you can safely and responsibly dispose of your beloved workhorse. In the Chicagoland area, Apex is your full-service material handling and warehouse management resource. Give us a call for all your warehouse equipment needs.