A brief history of the forklift truck
Around the early 1900s, the first battery powered industrial trucks were used. An American railway company introduced the platform trucks to move luggage at one of their train stations.
During World War I, partly due to manual labouring shortages caused by the war, Britain began to develop different kinds of equipment to handle materials. A company in the USA, in 1917, started to develop and use powered tractors and powered lift tractors in their warehouses.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the industrial truck or forklift truck was developed, improved and its popularity grew in industry as businesses recognised the advantages of owning equipment that would speed up the movement of heavy materials around their warehouses and premises.
World War II brought about the increased use of forklift trucks to aid the war effort. After the Second World War, warehouses were developing ever more efficient methods of storing their goods. These developments gave rise to a need for industrial trucks that were both more maneuverable and capable of reaching greater heights.
In 1956 a Japanese company introduced its first forklift truck and made its first sale of a forklift truck in America in 1967. Since that time, many different types of trucks have been developed and built in response to industry’s rising need for their versatility and have now become an indispensible tool in the modern workplace, whether it be a mail sorting centre, a warehouse or dockyard. These modern-day work horses have been a tremendous boon to industry around the world.
Tags: industrial racking, industrial shelving, warehouse racking, warehouse shelving