Document zd8RxzykkpR67mb5YwOvdaVpn

LIA24252 LEAD INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION. INC. o 2a MAOItON AVINUI NEW YORK. H. Y. 10017 TIUAHONI -- HU COOI III 01 MW Doconbor 30, 1964 SUBJECT! "WHY TOO SHOULD BUT AN ELECTRIC TRUCK" To Kenbers of the Load Industries Association, Inc.: Ered C. Dorband, sale scum for the Clark Equifnent Conparty at Green Bay, Wisconsin, was the top winner in a contest sponsored by the Electric Truck Division, Material Handling Institute, on the subject, '."hy Tou Should Buy An Electric Truck." We thought that you would like to read the winning paper, t.'e have circulated this paper to 187 power conpany sales exocutives for use in their sales efforts for battery industrial trucks. Their responce in less than three weeks has been to request 166 additional copies! Sincerely, L. ...6 7 f . t. , ! ,' Connel A. Baker, Jr. o LI A24253 l,by Tou Should Buy An Electric Truck - by Fred G. Dorband o As an experienced buyer for a large and reputable cor,puny, you have only one thing in mind. That la to buy the truck that's best for your company. Regardless of make, you should consider the advantages of every typo of power supply available: Gas, Electric, and LP Gae. The advantages and disadvantages of each type of power supply should be care fully weighed against your company's neods. Then, this informtion--balanced against your own experiencs and ths sxperlrnce of other, similar companies--will clearly in dicate your logical coursa of action: to buy the truck that's best for your company. To complete these logical stepa of analysis is a tremendous Job, However, much of this information is alreac^r in the hands of the very people you may call on to assist you in caking such an executive decision. These men, in most companies, would be your cost accountant, your maintenance engineer, your materials handling engineer, your production head, and perhaps even your personnel manager or safety ongineer. limy people seen to be involved. But isn't it true that they all should be and usually are in agreement before a major decision is mads? And isn't it further true that each can will consider the decision as it effects his getting his Job done best for your company? These men are not impartial. They are partial to what's best for your company. They are your experts, tools to be used according to their ability In shaping your executive decisions. It is also a fortunate circumstance that our man ufacturers have had vast experience in dealing with top people in many of these vital areas of business. (Xir manufacturers further are in a good position to seo both sides of the gasversus-eleetric question. They are not only p:roduccrs of electric trucks but also those with gas and LP types of power. Since we offer this wide selection, ve can truly fit the type of poirer to your need, freely recommending that which is best for you. Let's considor together what these experts in important areas of your company are looking for, what they require ae a aource of power in your industrial trucks. First, consider your cost accountant. He and other cost accountants are taking the long view of any new assot, because your cocFany hae been in business for a number of years and plans to grow more successful through expert management. Electric-truck economic life has proven to be longer than that of gaa-px>wrod trucks--in compsary after company and in application aftor application. This fact haa come to be accepted by coat accountants as offsetting the slightly highsr coat of the electric truck chassis. o Cost Accountant's Analysis Now from the cost accountant's point of view, the purchases of charger and battery plus ths cost of olectric current are balanced against costs for fuel, oil -1- N 2026.01 LIA2A25A -i "Why Tou Should Buy An Electric Truck" (Cont'd) ar.d radiator coolant. When buying chargar and batteries, you aro pre-purchasing a five to ton year power or fuel supply. An Investment of (2,CXX) In battery and charger la required for one shift, and $3,500 for a two or throe shift operation. The savings In fuel (at 30f a gallon for gasoline) and oil {UC4 a quart) alone can t'ui a difference of $2.75 to $3.00 per shift, per day of oporatlon. At this rate, arid on the basis of only 2C0 working days per year, the fuel cost of gas trucks would be $600 greater per year than the electric truck on a one-shift operation. Then, in about 3 3/3 years, the fuel cost on ono shift of gas power will overtake and pass the fuel cost of power of the electric truck. With normal care and 1 one-shift operation, adequate batteries have been giving usable life of as many aa 2,000 daily recharglrgs--or after 3 1/3 years have been expended less than half of the battery lift. Fuel cost savings, then, begin to accrue to the added profit of your company. Cta 2- or 3-shlft operations, the savings on fuel or power cost nultlply even faster. The cost accountant will use the best avllable maintenance cost figures from your maintenance engineer, who is knowledgeable and competent in this field. He will think of total cost, not Just first cost. This thinking In terms of total costs has influenced core and more executives to agree with the findings of their cost account ants: from sn over-all cost figure, electrics are their best rocomended type of power. Personnel and Safety Considerations Eut what cf the others? '-hat do they want? Tour personnel director or safety engineer will have some Ideas as to how your selection of typo of power can affect the health and efficiency or morale of your Individual employee, be he a fork-truck driver or one who works near areas where fork trucks operate. He can produce, from his own files, studies on the effect noise and vibration have on the nervous systems of cen working in these areas. Subjecting these employees to rare noise and vibra tions than necessary decreases their working ability and makes them more accidentprone because of increased irritability and impatience. Studies by leading uni versities have confirmed these facta. Personnel men and safety engineers are considering these facts on profitcoating factors. In other words, as we decrease the noise and vibrations we in crease the profit potential of t!'s employees of your company. Cood public health dictates the elimination of obnoxious as well aa poisonous fumes wherever and when ever possible--another plus, putting both the personnel director and safety engineer in favor of electric trucks. Production Han Won't Tolerate Down-Time Tour production manager is primarily interested in smooth, fast, uninterrupted production. He gets paid to get things done now. For many yoars those production men who have token the qulckost, shortest route to the solution of the problem at hand have favored gasoline powered fork trucks. In the past, gas fork trucks were the only trucks that could operate at high apoods -2- ti --V LIA2A255 i "Why Tou Should Buy An Electric Truck" (Cont'd) almost Indefinitely. Automotive-type automatic torque convertor transmissions made them smooth and responsive, and spare trucks could insure uninterrupted service. Furthermore, those production con were too busy and often not well equipped to Justify the higher initial coat of electric trucks. They took the equipment they could get the quickest and figured it was an improvement over the bull-work Dethode these trucke eliminated. However, in recent yoars the electric truck Industry has taken measure of the needs of those production people and built trucks that core than satisfy production requirecents. Kew truck designs and high voltages are used to cake electric trucke operate at speeds as fast as safety will permit. Smooth application of power has also been a cajor break-through by the introduction of new control units that, in effect, give each driver the ability to select from a great number of epeeds and points of power that which best fits each operation. Then the battery canufacturers have been increasing tha capacities of their batteries. Today's battery will work more than 5Ci longer on the same job, without recharging, than the sace nanufaeturer's battery of 10 years ago. The good news is that this increased work cycle was accomplished in batteries of no greater width or length. These same batteries are in stronger cases and shock-proof cell Jars. It was a cosaon experience that the spare truck of last week was absorbed into this week's regular production work. Interruptions in availability of gas equip ment due to normal inspection and service, repairs, replacement of gasoline engines, cooling systems, and transmissions began to plague the production people. Production men,in chocking the main cause of those interruptions, learned that they were not frequently caused by things that wero cormon both to gas and olectrlc trucks, such as braking, steering, drive-axle and hydraulic systems. The primary causes of the down-times were oil changes, ignition part adjustment and replacement, and cooling system adjustment. lost of those are normal wear-and-tear problem.' of the maintenance of gas power equipment. A good many of them are caused by dirt 'nd abrasive materials in the many moving parts. This dirt caused premature wear, and the fight was on to improve filters all the way around. The best way to solve a problem, of course, is to eliminate it. So more and more production men decided to eliminate the internal combustion engine and to depend on electrics with far fewer moving parts, requiring fewer fine adjustments. Kalntcnance Der-artnent Favors Preventatlres Th* maintenance engineer's first responsibility is to keep the company's trucks running and available for work at all times. Ha tries to do this best by performing proventative or planned maintenance on a regular ochedule. A woll administered pro gram not only can prevent unscheduled down-time but also spot potential trouble areas in time to avoid costly repairs. It is also tho maintenance engineer's responsi bility to keep maintensnce cost records and to control these costs. He is looking for the simplest, easiojt-to-take-care-of equipment, having the fewest parts. His praventivs maintenance schedule usually includes 8-hour, 100-hour, 5C0-hour, and -3- 'Vhy Tou Should Buy An Electric Truck- (Coot'd) 1000-hour inspection. A glance at the achedule for these Inspection on any elec tric truck shows fewer separate things to check, and experience will tell the main tenance engineer that these checks will be quicker on an electric truck than on a gas or LP-gas truck. We are all familiar with the gas-powered engine with its ignition system, car buret ion system, cooling system and exhaust system. The many roving parts that often require checking, frequent adjustment and replacement. Kany replacements are of course difficult to forecast and often must be made on a break-down basis, with the truck out of service. Tour maintenance engineer balances these things against an electric storage battery with a life of from 5 to 10 years, and absolutely no moving parts. A t illy charged battery of recommended capacity will supply constant power for a full shift before recharging is necessary. Between shifts, batteries can be changed with no loss of production tins when continuous use of the electric fork truck re quires it. Chargers now have fully-autocatic controls. When a battery is fully charged, an automatic cut-off shuts off the charger. These chargers are as de pendable as an electric clock. Chargers have outlived battery after battery, year after year. The sane chargers are often in dally operation for 20 yoars or longer. Maintenance on chargers is from nothing to, at the most, very little. The other important parts not cannon to both gas and electric trucks are the cool-running electric drive and lift motors. They have much higher torque over a wide spoed range, are electrically reversible, and can be instantly disconnected from their source of current. As a result, the power is transmitted without the use of a clutch, eelectivo gear-set, or torque convertor. They have only one moving part, the armature. The only maintenance they require is an occasional removal and inspection of brushes. The feature of few moving parts plus an almost universal knowledge of simply electrical functioning appeal to the time-and-cost-conscious maintenance engineer. Over a period of many years, hundreds of companies have kept maintenance cost records on both gas and electric truck operations. However, few figures were re liable or came even close to agreeing. The cost varied not only by the competence of the people keeping then but aleo by the varied opinions in different companies on what cost should be Included. For example, in scoe companies it has been found that careless accidents were included as maintenance cost. A fork poked through the radiator of one truck while pushing another truck la certainly a careless accident and not normal maintenance. In the past few years, reliable figures, at sound as an insurance company's actuarial tables, have been found. Through records now readily available, and based on the over-all performance of thousands of trucks, we can compute the maintenance cost per hour of operation and on both gas and electric trucks. Host companies offer customers a maintenance agreement as part of a rental contract. It Includes all maintenance, excluding only accidents and willful damage, Cn clean, normal application, using U,000 pounds at 24 inch load center trucks, -4- LIA24257 "Why Tou Should Buy An Electric Truck" (Cont'd) v find a cost of 54#-per hour on gas trucks and 34f per hour on similar electric trucks, Including battery and charger maintenance. This Is a difference of 2Cf for every hour the truck operates. The speed and ease of scheduled maintenance coupled with a maintenance cost savings of from C4CO per year, per truck, per shift, look good to tho maintenance engineer. Tour maintenance engineer, like others who have looked at the total value, is In favor of electric trucks. Haterlals Handling Engineer Suits Eomlcment to Need Tour materials handling engineer's principal concern is finding the best equip ment for each application and fitting it Into your over-all handling plan. Some applications require electric battery-powered lift trucks. They ray be used in cold storage coolers, In poorly ventilated or other hazardous areas. Cm the other hand, only gas power should be considered for other applications. These would be out-door trucks requiring pneumatic tires or other applications demanding trucks that will need to negotiate steep grades on a continuous basis. If your business is not cold storage and you operate 4,CCO pounds at 24 inch lod center trucks indoors and only in a one-story modern plant, you are free to select either gas or electric power. With the physical sice and maneuverability of gas and electric being about the same, you can select either truck. Travel speeds and lift speeds are now almost equal in gas and electric trucks so that either can be selected on the basis of speed at which your work is accom plished. From the specification point of view, the materials handling engineer can report whether gas or electric will do your work. In the past the immediate outlay of sizeable capital influenced the decision toward the lower initial cost in buying gas trucks. Now, lease plans available not only can save capital for use in your business but also require only small monthly lease payments. E7 these lease payments your truck is literally paying its own way in savings as it works for you. This means your materials handling engineer is not limited to the funds immediately available. Cn the basis of lift truck application, specification and methods of buying the utilization of equipment, the materials han dling engineer can select either gas or electric. These thii-gs being equal, ho then leans toward electric trucks on the basis of fuse-free, quiet, clean operation and the simpler lover-cost maintenance. Tho responsible people in your company should be and usually are in agreement on major decisions. The modern olectric truck is likely to be preferred by all your people, Accept their reconzaendations. Put electric trucks to work in your plant.