The writer is a long-time industry veteran based in Japan and he promises to continue to share his insights with Forkliftaction.com.
If you looked in Europe, the typical truck would be a pneumatic tyre, four-wheel 2.5-ton forklift powered by diesel with 4.5 metre triple stage mast and side-shifter. This configuration would not, however, be too popular in the US or Japan. In American, you're far more likely to see cushion tyre forklifts, while in Japan, 3-meter double stage masts dominate.
Maybe reach trucks are closer to the universal vehicle since they at least have the same name in the major markets of North America, Europe and Japan. However, the similarities in name mask other differences:
| | reach | tilt | operator | no. of castor |
| US | forks | forks | stand-up | 1 |
| Europe | mast | mast | sit-down | none |
| Japan | mast | forks | stand-up | 1, or none |
Battery voltages applied to electric forklift trucks are also far from universal:
| | small | up to 2-ton | less then 3-ton | 3-ton up |
| US | 24V | 24V/36V/48V | 36V/48V | |
| Europe | 24V | 48V | 80V | 80V |
| Japan | 24V | 48V | 48V/80V | 72V/80V |
Even pallets vary from market to market. More than 90% of the circulation pallets in Europe measure 800mm by 1,200mm, which is called Euro Pallet. Other areas have so far failed to standardise their pallet size.
Furthermore, the Euro Pallet offers access to only one side, whereas the popular pallets in the rest of the world are two-way accessible, or turnable. These differences mean varying specifications for fork arms' shape and dimensions in ITA Class III category trucks, pedestrians or walkies. In other words, European low-lift walkie pallet trucks cannot handle US or Japanese pallets and vise versa.
Possibly, reach stackers may be the only world truck since they handle single load, ISO ocean containers everywhere in the world and their major job site is limited to container yards.
There are number of global players in this industry. The writer, however, believes there are few real global companies and the rest are all "glocal"; their scale is global, but their presence is still local.
The bottom line is that there is no universal truck in this industry and each player needs to live with this fact. To accommodate diversity is to enrich our life - don't you agree?
There is, however, one country where these variations are accepted without questions and that's Australia. While the country buys just 2% of the world's new truck shipments, you can find almost all types of forklifts in this market, probably because of its geographical location, more or less the same distances from USA, Europe and Japan.
No supplier has yet succeeded in establishing their standard as the Australian de facto standard.
It therefore comes as no surprise to me that Forkliftaction.com took shape in this country. This portal leans neither to the US, Europe, nor Japan, and does not place any disproportionate emphasis on any particular area in its subject and articles. You may name many good industry/business magazines, but again they are "glocal". The main interest of American magazines rests in the American market. British, German, Japanese and others do likewise. So, this portal site had to come from Australia.
English is not my mother tongue, but it is the most common business language. So, it is good that the first language in Forkliftaction.com is English - even though there will no doubt be many who question what kind of "English" it is.