It may feel premature, but with Black Friday and Cyber Monday adding to the pre-Christmas surge in demand, now is the time to formulate plans for your peak-time handling operations.
It’s timely because retail sales show no sign of slowing down — which could manifest in greater than ever demand for the short-term hire of forklift and warehouse trucks.
Here are four recommendations designed to help you access the equipment you need and handle the pressure efficiently, cost-effectively and with a minimum of stress.
Review your capacity
If you’ve already optimised your fleet, it’s likely that you have little spare capacity, so the obvious answer is short-term hire. It allows you to seamlessly ramp up operations to handle the frenzy, and when the rush subsides, you can simply return the equipment without burdensome long-term commitments.
My advice would be to make enquiries now to ensure your supplier has sufficient stocks of the right equipment to suit your particular needs — without the kind of compromises that could result in lower productivity.
Consider your options
The first response in a situation that requires additional handling capacity is to add more of what you already have. That might work well… but short-term hire presents the ideal opportunity to look outside your comfort zone and consider more specialised trucks that could add an extra dimension to your handling capability, especially when it comes to exceptionally heavy or unusual loads.
A trusted supplier should have a wide selection of equipment ranging from power pallet trucks (so much faster and safer than hand pallet trucks), through stackers to low- and high-level order pickers and reach trucks… along with the all-important expert guidance on what would be most appropriate for your application.
Add an attachment
As the holiday season approaches, remember that unlocking your potential lies in smart investments, seamless operations, and staying ahead of the game with customised equipment.
The right attachment can transform your operations by adding versality and/or transforming a basic forklift into a highly effective, specialist handler. We keep a selection of these in stock to suit most requirements.
You may also wish to consider renting batteries — along with the associated kit — to generate additional shifts from existing trucks. It’s a really cost-effective way of sweating an existing asset and boosting throughput during those demanding peak periods.
Ready the workforce
When things get hectic, a motivated and fully prepared workforce is essential. It’s worth considering how best to achieve that.
When they have excessive deadlines, operators can often feel pressured into cutting corners. This means they end up driving too fast and failing to pay close attention to what they’re doing. Ultimately this is self-defeating because it almost inevitably ends up in accidents, spills, or damaged goods, so the time saved is wasted anyway.
It’s worth considering some short refresher sessions to remind them of this… and the extra care that will be needed when working around colleagues on foot.
As a matter of course we match the short-term rental trucks as closely as possible to the existing fleet and are available to train the operators on any differences they might experience in unfamiliar equipment.
Conclusion
Our transparent pricing model ensures you only pay for the equipment you actually need and only for the time you really need it (with the flexibility to extend the rental period should circumstances demand it).
Because of our focus on quality our short-term rental fleet comprises well-maintained forklift trucks and warehousing equipment. You’ll have no worries about maintenance, as our factory-trained team will ensure smooth, seamless performance.
Less downtime means more productivity, translating into greater customer satisfaction and future prospects of repeat business.
Moreover, by starting the process of planning your hire requirements early you can secure your preferred transportation options.
As a busy manager you may still have 99 problems… but, with our expertise, your handling equipment ain’t one.
To start your preparations for peak period working call 0845 3713048 or visit https://www.mitsubishi-forklift.co.uk/forklift-hire to find out more.
