Hyster Company launched its new LO2.5 center rider lift truck at the 2013 Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) WIRE Show. Also on display at the show was the company’s Hyster® Tracker wireless asset management system, introduced earlier this year. “After having introduced Hyster Tracker at ProMat earlier this year, the interest by our customers has been encouraging,” said Jonathan Dawley, president of Hyster Distribution. “The productivity boost through intelligent software combines with the productivity increase from the toughness of our Hyster trucks, like the LO2.5, to meet our customers’ warehouse lift truck needs.”
The Hyster LO2.5 lift truck eases second level order picking through a raising operator platform and the unit’s fully adjustable electronic power steering, automatic speed reduction in cornering and its suspended platform with an operator sensing floor mat. The electric steering reduces steer effort by 90 percent. The LO2.5 truck features numerous operator compartment and platform advantages for efficiency and ergonomic benefits. The control handle reduces the arm movement needed to change directions, helping to reduce fatigue, increase productivity and allowing the operator to remain inside the truck footprint for protection. The truck also has coasting and lift/lower function buttons on both sides of the truck, allowing the operator to also walk next to the compartment and lift/lower the forks without being on-board or on one particular side of the truck. The LO2.5 lift truck’s electro-mechanical disc brakes are top mounted for ease of maintenance or inspection.
The Hyster Tracker system provides a tiered offering of wireless monitoring, wireless access and wireless verifications. With basic monitoring, lift truck operations are able to utilize a variety of tracking capabilities, including hour meter, cost of operations, periodic maintenance, fault code, impact monitoring, operator training, park brake and seat belt violation and speed alerts. This wide breadth of monitoring helps operations effectively manage their fleet of lift trucks and operators, driving greater productivity and efficiency. Emails can also be sent automatically when certain faults or impacts occur, improving information availability when reviewing incidents.
With the wireless access tier, operations have access to remote lift truck monitoring, as well as operator access control and idle shutdown control. For operator access, Hyster Tracker knows who is operating the equipment and can keep untrained personnel from accessing or operating a piece of equipment. This increased operator accountability can improve driving behaviors and reduce damage or repair needs to equipment. The idle shutdown feature will power off equipment following a pre-identified amount of time if the equipment is tracked as idling or unattended, reducing excess fuel costs and preventing running equipment from being left unattended.
The final wireless verification tier builds on the previous two to further reduce management of a fleet’s equipment through checklist tracking. This feature allows an on-board, prompt-based verification of equipment issues, allowing them to be addressed and resolved as quickly as possible, reducing expenses or potential downtime. With a further hardware investment, Hyster Tracker can be linked to existing WIFI resources.
