Ken Dufford, vice president of Crown Europe (left) receiving the award.

Crown Equipment, STILL GmbH and Jungheinrich received honours at the inaugural International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Awards held at the CeMAT Transport Logistics trade fair in Munich last week.

Crown Equipment took top honours in the forklift solutions category in the competition that was sponsored by the German Engineering Federation.

The US-headquartered forklift maker's solution for Spicers, one of the UK's largest wholesalers of office supplies, earned the award. The jury recognised Crown's InfoLink fleet management system, which streamlined operations for Spicers. The Spicers system uses a new fleet of InfoLink-equipped Crown forklifts that has allowed the company to reduce fleet maintenance and repair costs by 90%. The efficiencies provided by InfoLink also enabled Spicers to reduce the size of its fleet by 40%. The wireless InfoLink system provides real-time information that is used by Spicers and results in overall cost and time savings.

Jungheinrich won two of the four categories at the awards. The winning trucks from Jungheinrich consisted of the DFG/TFG 540s IC counterbalance forklift produced in Moosburg (in the 'counterbalance trucks over 3.5 tons' category) and the ETV/ETM 216 reach truck from the Norderstedt plant (in the 'warehouse trucks' category).



"This award is both an incentive and an honour for Jungheinrich," says Hans-Georg Frey, head of the Jungheinrich management board. "We are pleased that our R&D expenditures have resulted in a further international distinction for our company."

Another German forklift manufacturer, STILL GmbH, was awarded in the 'premier class' for the counterbalance forklift up to 3.5 tons category, for its RX 70 hybrid forklift.

The RX 70 hybrid, which is 95% fabricated from recyclable materials, was recognised for its "higher degree of innovation, which made it clearly superior compared to other combustion engine forklifts, mainly with regard to operating costs, and on the subject of efficiency, it performed up to 30% more economically than its rivals".

The jury said: "As the first diesel forklift with energy recovery and electric power transmission, the RX 70 sets standards in forklift development and takes the balance between ecology and economy into a new era. With the RX 70, STILL meets the requirement for economy and sustainability in an optimum way, and thus also satisfies the demand for energy-efficient machines. This innovation represents a considerable benefit to users."



The entries were judged by a panel of European trade journalists.