Thanks Kevin for the suggestion, I'll look into it. Does anyone have any experiance with Yale/Hyster VX trucks? They advertise built-in impact monitors and pre-op checks, strong transmiisions that act more like an electric forklift with plugging. thanks again Kevin.

ever thought of impact sensors for your fleet. there is a few aftermarket companies over here that do them. they need supervisor key or password to restart the truck after impact causes shutdown. they can be a bit pricey but with your levels of damage cost they can soon pay for themselves. as if by magic things stop breaking.

Jon, thank you for your reply, you hit right on the head. Very good advice, I guess I was looking for support from my peers. Our floors have been an issue in the past but most have bben repaired, what I didn't mention is all three axles were broken the same month! The month before this happened our safety department was preparing for an upcoming corporate safety audit. With that all operators had be compliant (most were not) so they had to follow safety rules. This really upset them, hence machine damage. After the there temper tantrum they did really well following the rules. Our audit took place Feb. 08, and we passed. At that time our damage was minimal, but since damage per month has risen to an all timme high in May. I know they can work without by following the rules but choose not to. To me it's all about sustanability, which would work but it has to start at the top. I really appreciate all the input from you. it means a lot when it comes from someone in the know, thanks again, Dave.

Three axles snapped... Either you had a 'bad batch' (unlikely) or you either have terribly abusive operators or a floor that has moon craters. It's apparant from your post that you see a problem. From what you've written I see 3 causes (pretty much the same breakdown for any business):
1. The nature of the business and it's product causing damage - your molten splashes
2. The operator - normally the most costly group
3. The physical environment i.e. the floor, dock plates.

I suspect that there's little you can do with the first group, the third is costly and the second is unwilling to change 'the way we've always done it'. Welcome to our world.
If you evaluate your operation. Start with the easiest fix - probably the floor, and let the operators know what/why. They'll know a change is coming, and hopefully start to change their behaviour. Next, introduce a forklift operations plan, and give it teeth, discipline the worst drivers, the others will change.

I wish you luck

We have tried different types along with different Mfg's, the one that works best for us is a solid pnuematic type called soft tuff. I have a DP50K in the shop today with a drive tire with molten metal damage, down the center of the tire is burned out and missing. I have watched the operators run through spilled molten aluminum, it sticks to the tire and continues to burn. We pay about $1,200 for two 300-15 soft tuff's.

Something I've always being curious about is, what do you guys use for wheels/tyres? Would you use hard wheels like vulkollan or good old super elastic / solid rubber. If you were using the harder wheels I can't imagine that it would be good for the floor? Do you have to change them regularly?

The damage we have at this location varies but is consistant. Our safety standard requires us to have an enclosed cab with air conditioning to protect the operator from molen metal splash along with automotive or better type window glass for visabilty. Some examples of the damage we see at our location is as follows:
Broken Drive axles (twisted like a barber pole) 3 in one month.
A Cat DP50K 2 weeks old with a transmission case broken in half.
A Cat DP50K 2 months old with molten metal splash from under the unit burning the steer hose and truck main wiring harness.
Broken windows on a daily bases.
Cascade fork positioner/side shift attachment pulled from the carriage at least 10 times in the last year.
Last year I tracked $50,000 in damage on only 8 forklifts.
How does this compare to other locations as far as being normal damage?

I agree that you do not differentiate. I had a rebuilt sideloader delivered to an aluminium plant, and 2 days later the operator of another lift swiped the furnace, coating the floor and sideloader. Not normal wear, everything melted. I had a different customer that had furnaces for brakes. We did make a difference there due to molten metal on the floor (normal for them, not our application). Normally we would have tagged it all avoidable, at that site we did not, but charged extra under the CFPM to cover damage.

When we had trucks in an aluminium foundry, we didn't differentiate between them and any other customer with regards 'damage' and 'normal wear and tear'. If the seat got worn, or the mast hanger bushes wore out, we fixed them, but if some idiot driver took it to close to the fire or poured molten metal over it, that was damage and they got charged. We got one back that took an apprentice two days with a hammer and cold chisel just to get the metal out of the mast,another with all the wiring and dash in one molten lump, no way are we covering that.