No aspect of the forklift trade is likely to cause more grievance than the after-sales service contract. This is why it is so crucial that truck users should have a comprehensive maintenance agreement that takes account of how the truck will be used, says David Ellison, chief executive of the Forklift Truck Association (FLTA). Such agreements must make clear who is responsible for items such as tyres, forks, batteries, etc, and above all the annual hours of usage must be realistically set and rigidly defined if huge, overtime use bills are to be avoided at the end of the lease.
Often use rates defined in a contract are based on fewer hours than the truck will actually be used. Many truck lease deals, for example, will quote for 2,000 hours of annual usage but that would be hopelessly unrealistic in a 24/7 operation. Define how long the annual rate is good for. Contract clauses often allow the dealer at the end of one or two years the right to increase the maintenance portion. Find out what is really covered and obtain the dealers’ definition of abuse. It could be, for example, that a dealer will charge for a leaky power cylinder, claiming its was abuse.
Users should examine what hour meters suppliers are using. If the meter is electric buyers need to know is it traction time, seat time or, more likely, key time? If it is key time, look out for overtime because compared with traction time users will hit the overtime use barrier much earlier in the lease and so face nasty extra bills.
There is no doubt that dealing directly with a truck manufacturer or big national dealers on after-sales service issues is safer than dealing with independent dealers. To lessen that risk, truck users should ask dealers how well trained and knowledgeable their engineers are because there is no “ABTA” for forklift service providers.
The less reputable dealers may try to repair breakdowns on the cheap, making a problem worse, instead of calling in the manufacturer. Truck users may be unaware, however, that they can have a clause in any finance agreement that allows the operator and the finance house to change the service provider.
If a truck dealer collapses, leaving the user high and dry over service issues, then some comfort can be drawn if the dealer concerned was a member of the FLTA. This body and its finance house members will work together to try to locate an alternative maintenance provider.
Large dealers like Briggs Equipment and Barloworld will offer agreements that include guarantees for uptime, first fix and response time and if a truck cannot be fixed within 12 hours they will lend a replacement truck. Customers can also tailor the level of service they need. Barloworld, for example, has launched a new package called “Truckserve” that comprises two levels of service.
As with any service agreement buyers must always read the small print carefully, and if making comparisons between quotes make sure that they are comparing like with like. No matter how strong the temptation in the current climate, buyers should not be rushed into taking the cheapest price. “The cheaper prices usually have serious hidden costs,” says Briggs.
Perhaps now, more than ever, buyers need extra protection that an “Approved Forklift Supplier Association” would confer and to whom they could complain and get prompt resolution to their problems. Such accreditation should be hard to earn and keep. This would raise industry standards to levels customers deserve but all too often do not receive.
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