manufacturers and businesses want to worry about is forklifts – those 9,000-pound machines that do the heavy lifting inside warehouses and facilities throughout the Greater Lehigh Valley and the world.

But like any vehicle, forklifts need maintenance, and an Allentown business that recently opened an outlet at 200 E. Bellvue Ave. in Reading is riding that niche to success.

ELT Fleet Management, with corporate headquarters in South Jersey, has been specializing in forklift fleet management for 13 years and is one of the few companies in the nation to do so. With 500 total employees, about 35 in Allentown and five in Reading, parent company Eastern Lift Truck has offices across North America and daily monitors 10,000 pieces of equipment as part of its overall fleet management services.

ELT Fleet said it promises to save its clients 15 percent in operating costs.“People ask us ‘How can you be so bold?’ ” said Will Van Ness, ELT Fleet Management director. “We find different ways to do things [such as] different equipment, negotiate rates or replace equipment. Quite often it’s a combination of all three.”

The make, model or type of forklift doesn’t matter, and neither does its age or if the customer owns or leases the equipment. Whether it runs on gasoline, diesel, liquid propane or hydrogen fuel, it also is not an issue for ELT.

LACK OF MAINTENANCE IS COSTLY

Van Ness cited a presentation by maintenance guru David Tod Geaslin on the disastrous effects of deferring maintenance.

Geaslin categorized many of his observations under his inverse square law that says, “If a problem is left unrepaired, the end cost will be the square of the original part that failed.”

In theory, a $100 bearing failure could result in a $10,000 repair.

A 100-fold replacement cost for a small maintenance task usually gets a client’s attention.

“Nearly 100 percent of the time, clients are in the business of manufacturing, distribution or logistics,” Van Ness said.

A client might move clothes, shoes or housewares for a retailer and have other issues more prominently in mind.

“The last thing they really want to focus on is forklift purchase, maintenance and disposal,” Van Ness said. “It’s what we do to the overhaul lift-handling function of our clients.”

HIGH-TECH MONITORING

Parent company Eastern Lift Truck began in 1971 and has 12 offices from central New Jersey to western Virginia. A team of 10 full-time employees is at the core of its forklift fleet management effort.

“We go to the Allentown office weekly [and] have clients all through Eastern Pennsylvania,” Van Ness said. “Roughly 25 percent of our client base is in the Lehigh Valley [and Reading area].”

Specializing in fleet management for 13 years, about three years ago it began using a device that is retrofit onto industrial equipment to record data in real time, Van Ness said.

It’s like a high-tech transponder on each piece of equipment that helps clients automate their required maintenance and repair programs.

“On a web-based application, they can see to the penny what they’ve spent on each asset,” Van Ness said. “Having that level of visibility on a cost-per-hour basis is gold to our customers.”

He uses the example of a doctor who must examine a patient before he or she can prescribe a treatment and follow-up medication, but in this case it’s care and feeding of forklift equipment.

The system also empowers those who work frequently with the equipment.

“The operator knows before anyone else knows,” Van Ness said. “So by doing an online checklist, they now have the power” to report a fault.

“If you diagnose something early, you get to the root of it,” Van Ness said. “It’s the same with material handling equipment. If it doesn’t feel right or smell right, then something’s not safe.”