I spoke with one of my suppliers today who used to do business in the UK. He had 3 large warehouses with about 250 pieces of material handling equipment under his command. When I brought up this subject & asked his opinion he told me that in England he was required to replace a forklift when it was 6 years old. He was constantly having to purchase new equipment as the fleet aged.

Is this true? Is there some sort of law requireing a forklift to be replaced after it's 6 years old? He also told me that English forklifts have alot more safety stuff on them than the American units.

The company he worked for eventually sold off all the assets in England, as the cost of doing business was just to high. He then ran a warehouse (for the same company) in the states where he said the average age of the equipment was 8-10 years old, with some units being 15 years old. He had his own service dept. & techs- this arrangement was much more economical in his opinion.