There are actually a range of safety features that are common to particular types of trucks including seat belts on sit-down vehicles. On most stand-up vehicles there are dead-man petals as well. Moreover, some manufacturers are offering extra features such as speed controls that are able to reduce the overall speed based on load height and steering angle. For more info, there are numerous articles available on Loading Dock Safety and Lift Truck Safety.
Service and Support
Making sure you would maintain access to high levels of service and support is a really vital part of forklift selection. There seem to be a range of new players in the forklift business each year. Even if they offer a decent lift truck design and a nice price, if they do not provide the local or regional support and service infrastructure, you should be ready for major stress when the forklift goes down. Each and every lift truck model goes down at some point and parts, service and general questions must be addressed at some point.
You would generally want to have a nearby repair shop or dealer with a full supply of the components you require for your specific unit. Be certain to visit the repair shop or the dealership and check their parts room so as to try to understand how many parts they stock. Make sure to ask that if they do not have the part you need, where would it come from? With any luck, the answer will be from a regional or local distribution facility.
Moreover, try to get some ideas as to how many of those particular models are currently being utilized in your area. This is very important for specialty trucks like turret trucks. If there are only a small amount of trucks in use in their service area that you should assume they may not be stocking many if any parts for them. Additionally, they could have very little overall experience in servicing that particular model as well.