Real Las laser alignment system

'Another year wiser' says John Valentine Director at Real Telematics. 'That should be our catch phrase. Firstly, we really try hard to stick to winning formulas in our operation, but we also have a strong ongoing R&D drive. We know we cannot rest on our laurels. Our customer's Forklift interests are constantly changing and evolving, therefore so must we.'

'About 6 years ago we saw that PC-based software was fast becoming outdated and difficult to support, which is why we moved our software online about a year later and made access to our systems and reporting Web based. Shortly thereafter, we saw that traditional reporting on systems where customers had to access their own reports was dying a slow death. Users were just not logging in and thus the vital information on their forklifts was simply not being seen or used,' says Valentine. 'If you cannot show your ongoing value then you are simply not relevant. We realized at that point that we had to make things easier for the customers by putting the information in a simplistic format and sending it to them automatically via email each day. This worked beautifully and now we are surprised if a customer actually logs in to the system twice a year as all they need is delivered live or on pre-scheduled days.'

Real FMX installed

'No sooner had we congratulated ourselves on this achievement, when the forklift market shifted again' says Valentine. 'We see that particularly in sectors such as Retail and operations which include Warehousing and Logistics elements there has been significant change. For me it started by noticing how many pre-booked meetings were being postponed, or during those meetings how many calls or interruptions my customers were fielding. We saw that these same customers also had schedules for meetings from early morning till late at night, it not being uncommon for them to be working 12 to 16 hour days. Taking from this we knew that we had to shake up things in our operation. As a result we have changed our offering from 'Self Service , Fire and Forget' to ' What can we do for you to make your life easier?' We now actively try to take as many forklift associated headaches away as we can, so that our customers can focus on their core business.'

Probably the biggest change in materials handling has been the gradual shift from Gas/Diesel machines to Battery Electric machines in enclosed spaces such as Warehousing and Retail or in production related to Pharmaceuticals and Foods etc. Gas/Diesel machines still appear to be the preferred machinery used outdoors or in operations without stringent Emissions concerns, and in this area Real FMX undoubtedly dominates with sheer volume of quality features, particularly those that show immediate tangible benefits such as Excess Idle Cut Out and Transmission Protection (Gear Control and Tyre Wear reduction).


More challenging was showing value on the Electric machines that have far fewer monitoring points to work with but still have significant costs, mostly associated with the Battery. This is where Real Telematics started changing from simply monitoring the battery to providing a range of battery management features. The latest development in this is our Battery Cut-Out Feature which allows us to simply remove power from the battery at a pre-configured level (normally 25%). This protects the last few percentage of charge and prevents total drainage, which is not good for the battery life cycle. Considering this feature was only launched in December 2014, it is pleasing to note that it's now a standard feature on all Electric machines we have since fitted. 'We also looked into the other needs of an indoor operation and launched products such as Real Las (Laser Alignment Hi Lift), Real Blue (Blue Light Movement Early Warning) and Real Load (Weight Measurement), all within the last 3 months,' says Valentine.

'Flexibility is our key ingredient', Valentine remarks, 'and that is demonstrated amply by our response to industry in making our product range totally modular. This means you can pick and choose from our range of features and only pay for what you want. Nothing stops you from upgrading with other features on the same unit when you see fit. Many customers might not even be aware that because we locally produce and support the product that it can also be refurbished and refitted into another machine. We also have all these features available in standalone units with no reporting, which works for areas with no coverage or for customers with limited requirements.'

'We feel that although there are probably other suppliers that can do some of the features we offer, there is nobody currently that can do all of our features within a single control unit like we can. This makes the choice to go with Real FMX on your forklift the logical one.'



Download the full Real FMX brochure or,
visit the product page



For more information please contact:

Real Telematics - www.realtelematics.co.za

Craig Boshoff - Sales Director
t: +27 82 822 2559
e: send Craig an email

John Valentine - New Business Director
t: +27 82 469 0834
e: send John an email