Why fleets end up the wrong size
Fleets grow by purchase and shrink by attrition, which means they inherit every organisational change the site ever had: the contract that ended, the extension that never opened, the truck someone bought for a project that finished. Rightsizing is the discipline of recomputing the fleet from today’s work instead of yesterday’s history — and it regularly finds both trucks that do nothing and zones that wait on one busy machine.
The utilisation model, in one page
- Count the work per zone per shift. Pallet moves, travel distance, lift heights — the same measurements the aisle guide and capacity worksheet use, now per zone.
- Compute one truck’s honest coverage per truck type: moves per hour at realistic speeds, minus charging fragments, breaks and handover.
- Divide, then round sensibly. Utilisation targets matter here: a truck sized at 95 percent utilisation has no room for peaks, sickness or maintenance; 70 to 80 percent is a working number with margin.
- Add flexibility deliberately: one flexible spare per site or per platform group, not one per zone. The spare-parts logic applies to trucks as well as parts.
| Zone | Work character | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| Dock and yard | Continuous waves, heavier pallets | EP counterbalance line, sized on the heaviest realistic pallet |
| Dock lanes and backroom | Short moves, doorways | ST15 walkie — one per active lane group |
| Racking aisles | Cyclic stacking | ST20 stacker per aisle group, by cycle time |
| Peak overflow | Seasonal | Flexible spare, rental, or staggered shifts before new steel |
The platform effect on fleet size
Standardising on one counterbalance platform changes the maths quietly: mixed EP18/EP25/EP30 trucks share charging arithmetic, operator skills and spares thinking, which means the flexible spare can be any of them and a breakdown does not strand a shift. Platform sprawl — one of each brand and voltage — needs a spare per brand, a charger per voltage and training per cab; the platform guide explains why fewer platforms is one of the quietest TCO decisions a site makes. Rightsizing and platform discipline are the same project wearing two hats.
Peaks without purchases
Seasonal peaks tempt fleets to buy for the worst fortnight. The rightsizing answer runs cheaper options in order: stagger shifts before adding trucks; rent for the true peak; cross-train operators between zones so the same fleet covers more of the day; and only then buy — with the utilisation data showing the new truck will not join the idlers. Lithium opportunity charging strengthens every option, because a fleet that charges in fragments flexes across zones in ways a battery-swap fleet cannot; the charging pattern is why our EP sites flex at all.
The review habit
Rightsizing is not a project; it is a quarterly look at the same three numbers: utilisation per truck, waiting events per zone, and the flexible spare’s hours. When utilisation runs low for a quarter, the fleet is carrying inventory; when waiting events climb, it is short. The review costs an hour and keeps the fleet an output of the operation — which is the only state in which it is ever the right size.
What to do with the trucks rightsizing removes
Rightsizing that shrinks the fleet creates a small disposal decision worth doing well. Run the removal candidates through the resale lens — hours, records, battery documentation — and sell the ones with folders while the story is good, keeping the best-documented unit as the flexible spare even if it is not the newest. Trucks with poor stories but sound frames can serve as the training unit or the parts donor, which converts an idler into infrastructure. The mistake to avoid is parallel fleets: keeping two half-idle trucks because each is someone’s favourite. Rightsizing ends when every remaining truck has a zone, a workload and a reason — and when the disposal proceeds have quietly funded the flexible spare that makes the smaller fleet safe.
Presenting the rightsizing case internally
The model produces numbers, but rightsizing still has to be decided in a meeting, and the presentation decides it. Lead with the three numbers — utilisation, waiting events, spare hours — as trends across the quarters, not as a snapshot; show the zone map with trucks against work; and bring the cost of the idle hours in currency, not percentages. Then make one proposal at a time: the truck that does nothing goes first, the waiting zone gets the flexible spare second, the purchase request last. Small proposals pass; grand plans stall. Fleets are resized the way they were mis-sized — one decision at a time — and the quarterly review keeps the pencil moving long after the meeting ends.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my forklift fleet is the right size?
Run the utilisation model: work per zone per shift divided by one truck’s honest coverage, at a 70–80 percent utilisation target with one flexible spare. Low utilisation means carrying inventory; waiting events mean short.
What utilisation should a forklift run at?
Around 70–80 percent leaves margin for peaks, absence and maintenance. Trucks sized at 95 percent have no room to be vehicles.
How many spare trucks should a site keep?
One flexible spare per site or platform group, not per zone — standardised platforms let the spare cover any machine.
Should I buy trucks for seasonal peaks?
Exhaust the cheaper options first: staggered shifts, rentals, cross-training. Buy only when the utilisation data shows the new truck will stay busy after the peak.
Does fleet size affect the charging plan?
Strongly — the charging map is built from where the fleet pauses. Rightsizing usually shrinks and simplifies it; see the charging infrastructure guide.