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Crown Equipment Corp. Crown
recently moved its InfoLink fleet
management system to the cloud, so
that the company and its dealers will
host customers’ forklift fleet and
operator management data for them.
Fleet management software (usu-
ally provided by the lift truck manu-
facturer) generates a variety of
reports dealers can use to make rec-
ommendations to their customers.
Just one of many examples is Fleet
Track, a Web-based fleet manage-
ment tool that provides Mitsubishi
Caterpillar Forklift America
(MCFA) dealers and customers with
a comprehensive view of their fleets. Users
can view planned maintenance services
and all related invoices, generate reports
across a number of parameters, analyze
spending over a variety of date ranges,
and track individual equipment spending
and hours, says Devin TePastte, parts
marketing supervisor for Rapidparts Inc.,
a subsidiary of MCFA. (For more exam-
ples of fleet management software—along
with advice on how to take full advantage
of its capabilities—see “Six ways to get
more from your fleet management soft-
ware” at www.dcvelocity.com.)
Many dealers also provide and support
wireless asset tracking and management
systems, which are available from inde-
pendent vendors as well as from some lift
truck makers. Yale’s dealers, for example,
can install and monitor the company’s Yale
Vision wireless asset management system,
which provides a tiered offering of wireless
monitoring, access, and verifications, says
Bill Pfleger, president of Yale Distribution.
With basic monitoring, lift truck opera-
tions can track such information as hour
meter readings, cost of operations, period-
ic maintenance, fault codes, impacts, oper-
ator training, parking brake and seat belt
violations, and speed alerts, he explains.
OSHA-compliant operator training is a
value-add area where dealers excel.
Classes may be offered at the dealer’s
premises or, if the class and fleet are large
enough, at the customer’s facility. Classes
aren’t necessarily just for lift trucks,
though. One example: ProLift Industrial
Equipment, a Toyota dealer headquartered in Louisville, Ky., also offers safety
training for users of aerial lifts and skid-steer equipment as well as for pedestrians
working around forklifts. Dealers may
also offer “train-the-trainer” courses,
which are designed to teach fleet and safety managers how to set up and maintain
their own compliance programs. This is
complex stuff: The instructor training
course offered by Dallas-based Sunbelt
Industrial Trucks, a dealer that represents
Komatsu, Nissan, TCM, Big Joe, and Flexi,
covers 18 separate subjects. Some dealers,
such as those in Crown Equipment’s dealer network, also offer lift truck technician
training for their customers.
