Illinois is in equally bad shape. Right now I think all dealers are down to 32hrs a week. Including crown, raymond, clark, komatsu and jungeheinrich. The economy doesn't look like its going to pick up any time soon as our customers are canceling maintence and closing left and right.

Or did they do what a lot of places do cut back pay scale lay off workers give upper management a bouns.We are so smart to make such good decisions. I know this if We acted like the government we would get fired sued and put in jail.My water heater went out so I need a raise.I going to take out of Johns retirement to fund my new car project.Ill take that vacation to Florida to vote your way.

that has got to be the pits, it's not like the bank will allow you to cut back your mortgage payments by 2.6% (even when the value of your home dropped by 20% in the last year...)
My heart goes out to the previously overpaid Crown Techs... ;-)
I wonder if Crown Inc. cut back on any of their expansion plans? are they still building a IC unit? and all the expenses that goes with that...
Did the Crown owners take a pay hit like if it was a stockholder owned company, and the stockholders got little or no dividend, and lost value in the stock they owned?
I wonder how long until every other forklift company "right sizes" their pay structure

D

We are done seeing a pour out of workers from other dealers with lack of work on their applications.My heart goes out to them, this is a small town.Praying for the best for all.

Having a Service Trade is a good thing. Our nation is headed in the direction of a "Service Nation".
Our manufacturing strength is declining and we will see the day when many of our everyday goods will be shipped in.
Many of the companies that we in the material handling business deal with, much of their goods are shipped in and warehoused in large distribution centers. Seems to be a trend these days. But that will be good for us.

Now is the time to become a valuable asset to our employer as we are in this together. Soon, average material handling equipment techs will be a-dime-a-dozen.
As companies "Thin their herds", the less productive, and less "Valuable" techs will be loose their jobs. The "Slackers" will be on the "Indangered Species" list, which does not hurt my feelings.
Sometimes an economic downturn is a good thing. It causes companies to make adjustments and clean out all the "Dead-Wood" that has accumulated.

It is going to be interesting to see how this pans out.

-I- will still be in this industry 5 years from now, I have seen the "boom and busts" in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and now the 00s, and while none were fun, nor was any of them a spot in which forklift techs suddenly became as wealthy as doctors, it is one of the advantages of being underpaid (in relation to the investment you make to be in this industry), that in bad times, even fewer people are willing to invest the money in tools and the time in learning to become the type of tech people are willing to pay to have around. it will not be likely that someone used to using a forklift to move pallets of material will be willing to pay a person to move the same weight by breaking down the load and carrying it on their shoulders, and the demand for food is not likley to stop any time soon.
In this corner of this industry (forklift service techs) we don't get wealthy in the upturn, but we don't fall as far in the downturn either... (in part because there is not so far to fall until you hit bottom)
You may not get to buy that bigger boat you had your eyes on, but until you decide to sell your tools, you will still be able to feed and provide shelter to your family.

The new president said hes going to fix it all.All kidding aside I wish best ok luck to all and hope that maybe we will all have jobs in 5 years

Cleveland has been hit hard with this downturn. All I can say is that I have seen the market go up and have enjoyed it, and go down, which is obviously less desirable, and that the worse it gets the better the recovery will be for those of us that can weather the storm.

Happy New Year Dave.

Cornelious, the internet does tell the truth about the building being sold but it probably left out the fact that Clarklift signed a five year lease on the building or that we just odered a new sign for the front of the store. I bet it failed to mention that in December we hired 3 new people in Tampa to help take care of all the new service customers we are picking up from our competitors. People have a way of taking part of the truth and spinning it in to a rumor. As a customer you should ask your Clarklift rep for his side of the story and then decide what the truth is.

Rumor or Truth? As a customer myself how would I know which is which. It must be hard to keep the faith when the President/Owner of your company has sold the building your Tampa branch is in. Rumor or Truth?
This is the TRUTH the papers were filed on Dec. 29 and can be viewed on-line.
Customers have got to learn to do their research to separate the rumors from the truth before making any decision.
This is a sign on just how hard the economy has hit, as everyone knows, now is not the time to sell, it is definitely a buyers market.

I am a salesman at Clarklift of Florida and it is very tough to battle the rumors about my company. There are a handfull of dealers in Tampa that use those rumors against me on the street. I guess that is par for the course, considering everything we ( the Clark dealer ) have been through since I started in 2002. In November I sold 4 new trucks to a company that discarded the quotes from that handfull of dealers for using negative selling techniques.

slowing down on the west coast here for the guys servicing the lumber industry but we still have labour shortages and are always looking for GOOD help, a lot of the industry has shifted to the used end and service, which is making up for the shortfalls.

Regarding the comment about Clarklift of Florida never filing for bankruptcy; it is absolutely false. Just google (clarklift of florida bankrupcty) and you will see that they filed chapter 11 in august 2007.