Hyster Company has been named to the 2014 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 as a leading solution and service provider. Hyster earned this honor for its work to optimize the lift truck fleet of its customer, Estes Express Lines. The magazine’s editorial staff based their decisions on the ambitiousness and scope of the project, the creative application of technologies, solutions or services used and the extent of the business results or impact.
Estes Express Lines was experiencing issues with its lift trucks, including reduced tire life, overheating and inadequate operating range. These problems resulted in higher maintenance costs and increased downtime. To address these issues, Estes replaced their existing fleet with Hyster® lift trucks equipped with DuraMatch™ technology. The technology found in Hyster’s patented DuraMatch transmissions reduces tire spin and can decrease tire wear by up to 50 percent, while also extending brake life and preventing overheating with an automatic shutdown feature.
“As demonstrated in our work with Estes, the proven durability of Hyster lift trucks and our DuraMatch technology allow us to address tough operating conditions and demanding applications,” said Brett Schemerhorn, vice president of marketing for Hyster. “We’re proud to be a quality solutions provider for our valued customers, and to conquer their challenges and provide a lower total cost of ownership through one of the toughest—and most trusted—lift trucks around.”
By using Hyster lift trucks equipped with DuraMatch technology Estes has been able to work their lift trucks in excess of 30,000 hours in extreme environments, when the normal life expectancy was approximately 10,000 hours. In addition, fewer trips to the shop allow Estes to increase uptime, which ultimately increases the productivity of their business.
“With our increased uptime, we are now able to work our lift trucks in these extreme environments three times longer than we had in the past,” said Mike Palmer, vice president of fleet services at Estes Express Lines. “The decision to switch to Hyster has been good for durability, good for productivity and good for our company overall.”
