Forklift News - Forklift fleet expands to meet company’s growth

The warehouse relies heavily on equipment supplied by Toyota Material Handling Australia.

Over the last 10 years, furniture specialist Freedom has relied increasingly on Toyota Material Handling Australia to meet its forklift and warehouse equipment requirements.

When it first opened, the company’s 35 000 square metre warehouse utilised wide-aisle warehousing and only counter-balance forklifts were required.

Now part of Steinhoff Asia Pacific, the company’s growth has required the leasing of additional nearby warehouse space, a switch to narrow-aisle configuration and most recently a major building program that has pushed total floor space out to 45,000 square metres.

As a result, the distribution centre now relies on a large fleet of Toyota, Raymond and BT counter-balance forklifts and specialist warehouse equipment.

"There is such a wide variety of goods on site that we need the full range of the best available warehouse equipment," says distribution centre manager Susan Hillier. "Sometimes you are moving a pallet and other times you are moving furniture pieces – particularly sofas.

"Toyota has helped us to modify order pickers so that we can manage different types of products.

"Originally all sofas were stored in wide-aisle areas on pallets and moved by forklifts. The damage problem was horrendous. Now we also store sofas in narrow-aisle areas on mesh and the damage is absolutely minimal."

With 80 turret trucks, forklifts, order pickers and reach trucks required for two shifts each day, the forklift company provides two technicians permanently on-site to ensure reliability at all times.

"The system under which our fleet maintenance program operates gives full accountability," says Hillier.

"The technicians consult with us on a regular basis, especially if significant costs are involved, such as a new battery."

Toyota Material Handling has also worked with management in establishing a dedicated battery charging area with a fully automated system designed to maximise efficiency.

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