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.”