Forklifts are incredibly useful and versatile pieces of machinery in the material handling industry. Regardless of how useful one is however, each model eventually becomes worn and grey, reaching the end of its useful lifetime. When this happens, there are plenty of options of how you dispose or recycle it. In this article we will be looking what to do with an old forklift.

What Constitutes an Old Forklift?

This question is largely up to personal opinion. Every piece of equipment and machinery has a useful lifetime in economic purposes. Whether or not the forklift is actually still useful in the real world is subjective. Factors to consider include how old it actually is, or the hours of operation. There are also the maintenance costs to consider. If you are spending more than the value it is giving it could be time to give it up. Other factors include productivity; how well does it still operate? Additionally, how much is it actually still used? Is it often overlooked for newer or more operable forklifts in your fleet?

When considering this, you also need to think about the amount of hassle it will cause through both removing and replacing the old forklift. There is also the personal consideration. Maybe you’ve grown attached to this forklift over so many years, perhaps it was the first one purchased by the business and you want to keep it as a memory.

What are the Best Options?

If you decide that enough is enough and the old forklift must go, there are luckily plenty of options by which you can get rid of it and still make a profit. The first option is a trade-in sale. This largely depends upon the state of the forklift, but if it still has some assemblance of working order it can be used to take a portion off a new model. From there the forklift could either be used for different business operations or sold for spare parts.

This is also another way you can make a profit out of your old forklift. If it isn’t in any working order whatsoever it can be sold for scrap or for spare parts. The price of the parts depends upon the model and size of the forklift. The cost gained from completely scrapping the forklift is subject to the material costs at the time. If you are smart and see the demand for certain materials being higher in the future you could wait a while to scrap forklift, eventually turning it in when material costs are at their highest.

There are also vendors who will buy the forklift, whatever condition it may be in. Think ‘we buy any car’ esq. vendors. You may not get as much money from a sale such as this, but it is always a decent backup option to consider.

Could you keep It?

As mentioned before, getting rid of an old forklift can be a lot of hassle. There is the actual time spent finding a vendor to sell it to. As well as this, there are issues of whether or not you have a replacement to operate with in the meantime. Considering all this, in some cases it may be better to keep it in some form or another.

Instead of keeping it operating on its current duties, it could be repurposed. An old forklift usually used for heavy loads could be downgraded to work with lighter loads, increasing its useful lifetime. This is a useful method, as long as the value it is bringing is greater than the maintenance and operational costs required to keep it running.

There is also the option to keep it as a backup. Old forklifts may not be able to keep up with the rigors of day to day operation. However, they could come in handy in emergency situations or if another forklift goes down for maintenance.

Originally published by http://ilmm.co.uk