Compact and powerful

Impact Handling recently took on the distributorship for Carer, a niche forklift manufacturer based in Italy. The company has almost 40 years of experience in designing, developing and making large-capacity electric forklift trucks.

Carer markets its trucks as an alternative to internal combustion models and outlines the key benefits as: 

• No harmful emissions for the environment and workers.

• Less vibration and noise.

• Lower running costs.

Carer has made significant market inroads in the Netherlands. For example, the company sold five forklifts to paper and packaging giant DS Smith and I saw the trucks go through their paces at the firm’s paper mill in De Hoop. The trucks use clamp attachments to lift the paper rolls. This shows the power of the Carer trucks as using attachments is energy intensive.

Alex Zweekhorst, head of purchasing and logistics at DS Smith in the Netherlands explains why the company went for the Carer forklifts.

“The main reason was the narrow width of the forklift. Width is critical for us, as with a narrow forklift we can optimise the use of space in the warehouse. We can store up to 15,000 tonnes, whereas only 12,000 tonnes was possible with the previous forklift brand we used.”

The reason DS Smith decided not to continue its use of diesel trucks was potential contamination of products. This was seen as particularly important for DS Smith because it has a number of major clients in the food industry.

Other important reasons for choosing Carer were improving forklift performance and operating costs.

Alex explains: “I was sceptical at first but the reliability and length of charge provided by the electric forklifts has improved. In terms of operating costs, diesel is approximately €7/8 per litre, while electric in the local market is around €2 per litre.

“For us, the saving is higher because we produce our own electricity on site. I think roughly two years of operational cost saving will cancel out the extra capital cost incurred when buying the Carer forklifts.”

The site uses 100% recycled paper as its paper source and operates on a 24/7 basis.

Alex adds: “We could get by with four machines on the site, but we have five, we are taking no chances. We have also put in two battery charging locations, this way we avoid unnecessary long runs.”

That said, Alex did not find the electric truck suitable for all tasks on site.

“In the waste area it is a heavier application, there is a lot of pushing and lifting, and driving bales. The battery life here was 4 hours, so we stuck with diesel.”

Alex believes there is a distinct likelihood that DS Smith will adopt a policy of buying only electric forklifts, provided they meet performance criteria, within five years.

I also saw Carer trucks on site with Smurfit Kappa, where a forklift unloaded 10-12 trucks with 10-12 paper rolls on each in the morning, while mostly feeding production in the afternoon. The trucks were managing shifts of 7-8 hours on a single battery charge.

At paper firm Parenco, logistics manager Karlo Kuun rated the Carer forklifts as having a very good ratio of price and quality.

He adds: “We switched from 5.5 tonne trucks to 7 tonne machines so we could move to handling twin rolls as opposed to single, therefore becoming more efficient. We use a double clamp attachment for this, it allows us to lift two paper rolls vertically.”

I was impressed by the Carer forklifts. They managed to take on heavy duty applications and were lasting a full shift without needing to recharge. While more expensive than diesel models, the trucks were saving money in operational costs. In addition, the compact chassis provided by Carer allowed customers to better optimise space in their warehouse.