At HUBTEX, we build industrial trucks for the loads that defeat ordinary forklifts. Long timber, heavy steel sections, awkward building materials. Wherever a standard machine reaches its limit, we develop an application-specific vehicle that can handle the job safely and precisely. Our multidirectional sideloaders sit at the centre of this work, moving goods lengthwise or sideways through aisles where conventional trucks would struggle to turn at all.
That capability matters more than ever. Across the industries we serve, including timber, metal, building materials, manufacturing and logistics, warehouses are being rebuilt for higher storage density. Racking is going up, aisles are getting tighter, and manoeuvring room is shrinking. Our customers are expected to move difficult loads through these spaces without damaging goods, infrastructure or themselves.
Narrow-aisle operation is where the margins disappear. A sideloader carrying long material may have only a few centimetres of clearance from the racking on either side. A protruding pallet, a misaligned load or a slight error of judgement at the aisle entrance can lead to a collision with racking, guide rails or the truck itself. The damage is rarely confined to bent metal. Stoppages, repairs and goods write-offs follow.
Two systems built for the aisle
We have responded with two assistance systems built specifically for this environment: Clear Aisle Assist and Aisle Entry Assist. Both are designed around what operators actually do, rather than around generic safety features.
Clear Aisle Assist is our patented LiDAR-based monitoring system. Laser sensors scan the rack in front of and behind the sideloader, picking up protruding loads before the operator might spot them. A visual warning appears immediately and, where necessary, the system reduces travel speed on its own. The monitored zone adjusts in real time to the truck's speed and lift height, so protection scales to the situation rather than relying on fixed parameters. We offer Clear Aisle Assist on our PHOENIX series.
Aisle Entry Assist addresses what we consider the most demanding moment in narrow-aisle work: lining the truck up correctly before it enters the aisle. Getting the angle wrong, particularly in a mechanically guided system, has immediate consequences. Damaged guide rails, scraped racking, a stalled vehicle. Aisle Entry Assist uses laser scanner data to measure the truck's position and orientation relative to the aisle's centre line, then helps the operator centre and align the vehicle for a clean, semi-automated entry.
The time savings are real. We see gains of up to ten seconds per movement, which adds up quickly across a shift of repetitive cycles. Where the truck already has an operator protection system fitted, its sensors can often be reused. That approach keeps the upgrade economical for our customers.
Safety as a complete handling concept
Both systems share the same underlying logic: support the driver at the moments where mistakes actually happen, rather than layering on generic alarms that operators eventually learn to ignore. One keeps watch as the truck travels the aisle. The other handles the entry. The result is fewer collisions, less downtime and a more reliable flow of material, without forcing operators to slow down or work around their own equipment.
That approach reflects how we think about safety more broadly. The starting point is matching the right vehicle to the load, and assistance technology builds on that foundation. As warehouses keep pushing storage density upwards, the case for smarter trucks rather than wider aisles only grows stronger. It is the case we make every day, and it is the work we will keep doing.
