Hiloman, this is very, very true. Margins are so low on equipment that the after sales market is the best place to make any profit. The sales guy who can also get his fair share of this is without any doubt a more valuable employee. In fact it is a win-win situation, if truck sales numbers are down, then this demonstrates he is still winning some type of business.

mikeco,
Me thinks you will have much better luck by starting a new posting (thread) in the "technical arena" forum rather than hitchhiking on a totally unrelated thread in the "Industry & Whispers".

I am looking for someone more familiar with these Toyota's. It is a Toyota 7FBCU25. 48volt. Someone was putting in a new relay for the seat switch. Now this thing shows codes ( 62-2 : FE-4 : 67-1 ) What does these mean. Any suggestions on where to start. It has no tilt and no direction. I have a lot of hyster electric manuals. Can trade or anyone have the service manual for it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

every street salesman must know.....the dealer makes his $$$$ after the sale....service....then hopes to increase his rental fleet....sell parts...your job...mr street sales man is to make them afaird you will leave! and bring that aftermarket business elsewhere. i've done it , still do it, it works, its true blue...being loyal pays off if you undersatnd how it works working together.

all our trucks, parts, batteries etc are sold online. we don't have any salesmen. our internet marketing advisor is aged 20!

i agree that buyers suddenly know.."hey! i can find a better deal online" and then use this pricing against the street salesman to lower his price who in turn informs his dealer who inturn thinks the sales man isnt selling value anymore. but it is hard when you have online sellers showing clean late model units at much lower prices. i have seen this industry lose it mystery over the past 30 selling years. prices are coming down and dealers have to realize the greed factor will not prevail anymore.

on line will see a growth in sales of forklifts and rental,but what a lot of companies don't seem to understand it is the younger generation who will do this.Many young people understand the industry better than a lot of there older counter parts because this is now a changing industry. How people monitor trucks how people look for trucks and even how we all talk about the industry to one another is now on the internet. If you don't have a good program to promote and encourage younger staff then it will cost them a lot of money to encourage them to join there company.

I am 27 and have worked on the spanners and within sales for 3 forklift companies, i started on the spanners when i was 16 and left the industry this year, The reason i left was pay,
They dont pay young staff what they should be getting even if they are out performing the older team members i was earning 8k less but selling more equipment. These companies think that just because your young they can pay you less, This shouldn't be the case they should be investing in the future not the past before long no young blood will want to work within the industry and prospects will have to buy there machines online. I now work out of the industry and i am very happy but i had 9 years of experiance within the industry and my last company were happy to lose this to save a pound or two.

This has all way's been the case way back in 1989 when a number a companies in the north west went down One Fiat dealer and One Nissan. Nothing will change some people can make a lot of money quite quickly with the right deals or make them self s look good. Manufactures need to shift trucks at any price and some of the large dealers need to do the same. The more trucks on hire the better it looks even though they have a 25% residual on them. They hope to keep the business so no one will notice. As for younger people coming in this dose seem to be a problem and what will some companies be like in 10 to 15 years time

your comments are so true,it just proves that the forklift industry runs on a failed business model, sell it cheap, basically buy the business then hope to rip the customer off with high damage costs to recover the loss in the sale and after the contract is finished the truck comes back with a huge residual value that is unrealistic to the real value of the truck, then it is written down on the books and traded to one of their trade pals with a nice envelope with their name on it, the parent companies dont have a clue whats going on because the figures are manipulated that is all they see is figures and buzz words,this recession has proved the flaws in the system,short term thinking profit today and worry about tomorrow tomorrow,customers are starting to wake up and most of the big customers now employ people to keep on top of it , as for the good people leaving the trade , the industry needs a major injection of youth , wonder what the average age of engineers and salesmen is in this country, must be 50+,