How Many Forklifts Do You Need in Your Fleet?

This is a relatively common question in the material handling industry, especially when it comes to warehouse owners acquiring new or used warehouse equipment. Often, they’re on the lookout to improve efficiency and increase productivity overall with the implementation of additional machinery, but how many forklifts do you actually need?

The number of forklifts you require will be based purely on how often your existing vehicles are being used and this is usually calculated in hours rather than months or even years. It will also depend on how big or small your warehouse is and whether you’re looking to upsize or downsize your premises in the future.

But with that being said, it’s not always so easy to determine how many additional forklifts you’ll need, so we’re on hand to help. Whether you’re happy with the size of your existing fleet, realise you need to add to it or decide that, actually, it needs downsizing, it’s important that you adapt your resources to your operations, ensuring you make a decent amount of profit, ultimately.

How much use does your current fleet get?

Try to calculate how many hours of use each one of your forklifts get in one day. This is a key deciding factor when it comes to increasing the size of your forklift fleet. A common mistake is assuming that one employee who works an eight-hour shift will operate the forklift for eight hours a day, but that’s just not the case.

Most of the time, forklift operators are continuously on and off the vehicle throughout their shifts and so it’s not actually in constant use for eight hours each day. Instead, the average forklift will be operational for between four and six hours in a day, realistically, so use this as a basis when deciding whether to increase or decrease your forklift fleet.

How to maximise the efficiency & productivity of your existing fleet of forklifts?

It might be that you don’t actually need to increase the size of your forklift fleet at all. Instead, you could simply alter the way in which each forklift is used. For example, some warehouses assign each operator to their own forklift, whereas others have an on-demand approach. The on-demand method means that any operator can come along at any time to any forklift and use it to get their jobs done.

By adopting this approach, it’ll ensure that at least one of your forklifts will be available at any one time which means you won;t actually need to add to your fleet at all. Running multiple shifts that are staggered throughout the day will also help to maximise the use your current forklift fleet gets. Not only are these changes realistic but they’re also extremely cost-effective.

Another option that might be better, financially, is to rent the forklifts you need during your busiest times. Warehouse owners will often look to add to their fleet around Christmas, for example. But once the festive season is over, they’re left with more equipment than they need, but they’ve already paid a considerable amount of money for it, just for it to stay unoperational for eleven months of the year.

If you hire a forklift or rent multiple forklifts when demand has significantly increased, then you’ll be able to make full use of the equipment for a set amount of time. After the contract has ended, Multy Lift will pick up the forklift you’ve hired so you won’t have to worry about housing the vehicle long-term.

Multy Lift have a number of long and short-term rental contracts available when it comes to forklift hire. For transparent, flexible and affordable forklift hire, look no further than our professional, highly-trained and knowledgeable team of experts here at Multy Lift.

Either add to or cut down your current forklift fleet

There are a number of ways in which you can determine whether your fleet needs to be added to or whether you need to cut down the number of machines you currently have. Whether it comes down to increased maintenance costs or lack of space, there will be a time where you’ll have to remove a forklift or two from your existing collection.

However, if you have the space to replace an old or broken forklift, then you should consider a durable, robust and high-quality replacement. Multy Lift will be able to provide you with a brand new forklift, all manufactured by a number of renowned names in the industry, including Mitsubishi, JCB and Aisle-Master, to name a few. If you’re on a somewhat limited budget, then we’re pleased to be able to have an impressive collection of used forklifts that have all been meticulously reconditioned with your safety in mind.

Break down usage by task

• How many hours are your forklifts being used for tasks such as shipping and receiving in comparison to use in production?
• Are your forklifts regularly used for horizontal transportation?
• Consider a tow tractor or a single-double forklift attachment to get the job done on a budget
• If you find you’re constantly short on forklifts, then it might be time to increase your fleet slightly

Track forklift activity by operator

This is the best way to determine efficiency and productivity throughout your warehouse. If you have multiple forklift operators that are assigned to do the same task, monitor their productivity closely to see if, for example, they’re all moving the same amount of stock at the same time or not.

If they are, and their productivity is high, then you could do with increasing your forklift fleet. If one is going slower than another, then you could assign them another task or redistribute them around your warehouse.

This will then allow you to reduce your forklift size. If you sell your forklift on, you could make a considerable amount of money that could be used elsewhere in your business. If you’re looking to sell a forklift, then Multy Lift will be pleased to take it off your hands, subject to some conditions.

Identify any inefficiencies

Improperly trained forklift operators are often the main cause for inefficiency in the warehouse. Train your workers adequately so that they know how best to use one forklift for one job. Some have been known to use multiple lifting vehicles to move one pallet, but this is simply not productive. Identify where training needs to be improved in order to increase efficiency when it comes to forklift use throughout your premises.

Also, the correct racking, picking and transportation combination needs to be implemented to ensure each machine is used to its full potential. Ensure stock is conveniently stored, meaning that products in the highest demand are placed at the front of the warehouse and those in the lowest demand are placed at the back. This enables workers to quickly and easily retrieve the items they need every single time an order comes in.

Multy Lift are pleased to be able to provide our customers with high-calibre material handling equipment. In addition to new and used electric, diesel and LPG forklifts, we’re also able to supply reach trucks, order pickers, tow trucks, scissor lifts and a wide range of forklift attachments. For more information about the warehouse equipment we have available for purchase or hire, or if you have a machine you wish to sell on, get in touch with a member of our specialist team today – we’re always happy to help.