Clearaway Recycling Limited, of Archers Fields, Basildon, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,259 at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on 13 August 2026.

The incident happened on 28 October 2023. The woman was crushed between a gate post and a mobile shredder while accessing the tipping yard.

The Health and Safety Executive found that the company had not managed the movement of pedestrians and vehicles at the site. This allowed it to become custom and practice for pedestrians to walk in areas close to moving vehicles, including the shredder, as well as close to lorries and forklift trucks.

HSE inspector Joanne Williams said: "Where pedestrians require access to working areas, safeguards must be in place to protect them, including providing adequate segregation or separation distances between pedestrians and vehicles in the area."

The machine that caused the injury was a shredder rather than a lift truck, but the failure identified was not specific to any one machine. It was that pedestrians and vehicles shared the same ground as a matter of routine, and forklift trucks are named in the findings alongside the shredder and the lorries. Any yard where trucks and people move through the same space without marked walkways, barriers or separation distances is exposed to the same finding.

The phrase worth dwelling on is "custom and practice". That does not describe a one-off lapse or a rule being broken on the day, but a pattern that had become normal and would presumably have been visible to anyone crossing the yard. It is the sort of condition a segregation audit exists to catch, and it is generally easier to see in someone else's yard than in one walked through every day.

Almost three years separated the incident from the sentence. Operators inclined to treat a near miss as having passed without consequence may want to note that timescale.

Incoming orders for the six months to June reached €2.954 billion, up from €2.743 billion a year earlier. Revenue was essentially flat at €2.669 billion, a rise of 0.5 percent. EBIT fell to €144.9 million from €210.5 million, taking the margin down 250 basis points to 5.4 percent. Adjusted EBIT was €178.7 million, a 6.7 percent margin.

The gap between the two EBIT figures is €33.8 million of one-off effects, which the company broke down as €20.5 million relating to the sale of its Russian subsidiary, €7.4 million in residual effects from the strike at Lüneburg and €5.9 million from its transformation programme.

Dr Lars Brzoska, Chief Executive, said that "incoming orders showed a positive trend and were significantly higher than the previous year's figure", adding that "at the same time, one-off effects and continued competitive and pricing pressure impacted our earnings".

The segment split repeats a pattern now visible across the sector. Industrial Trucks & Services took orders of €2.417 billion, up 4.9 percent, on revenue of €2.241 billion, down 1.9 percent. Automation & Warehouse Equipment grew orders 22.5 percent to €588 million and revenue 12.9 percent to €471 million, although the segment recorded an EBIT loss of €6.7 million at a margin of minus 1.4 percent.

Free cash flow was negative €99 million, against a positive €57 million a year earlier, reflecting acquisition activity during the period. Full-year guidance, adjusted on 23 July, is for orders of €5.5 to €6.1 billion, revenue of €5.3 to €5.9 billion and EBIT of €340 to €400 million.

Read alongside KION's results published a fortnight earlier, the picture across the two German groups is consistent on one point and divergent on another. Both saw automation grow strongly while conventional truck revenue slipped. But KION's order intake fell 6.6 percent while Jungheinrich's rose 7.7 percent, so the two are not seeing the same demand — a reminder that group-level order figures reflect regional and customer mix as much as the state of the market.

The more useful signal for UK buyers is the pricing pressure Brzoska refers to. Competitive pricing squeezing margins while volumes recover is the condition in which discounts are available, and Jungheinrich is the second manufacturer in a fortnight to describe it in those terms.

The half also covered two acquisitions. Jungheinrich took its 4.9 percent stake in EP Equipment on 29 July, reported below, and on 6 August agreed to buy All Lift Forklifts, a family-owned Sydney rental specialist and dealer trading for more than 26 years from six sites across Australia. All Lift will keep its own brand. Neither purchase price was disclosed.

Second-quarter revenue reached €780 million, 15.6 percent higher than the same period last year. Recurring operating income for the half rose 33.4 percent to €87 million, and net income increased 56.8 percent to €51 million.

Europe was the clear driver, with revenue up 16.6 percent to €1.197 billion. Sylvain Blaise, President of the Ancenis-based group, attributed that to the rental and agricultural sectors together with market share gains in telehandlers, and described the half as showing "remarkable momentum".

The picture was less comfortable elsewhere. North American revenue fell 8.3 percent to €240 million, which the company put down to tariffs, and conditions in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East were also difficult.

The order book stood at €1.09 billion at the end of the second quarter, 4.4 percent higher than a year earlier and equivalent to roughly six months of sales visibility. Manitou now expects full-year revenue growth of 6.5 to 8.0 percent, up from 5 percent previously, with a recurring operating margin of 5.3 to 5.6 percent against an original 5.0 percent.

The split between a strong Europe and a weak North America is becoming a pattern this reporting season. Hyster-Yale, reporting in the same week, cited tariffs on steel and imported components as a continuing drag on its American operations.

Manitou also reported progress on LIFT 2030, its energy transition programme, including first deliveries of electric telehandlers and the formation of HM Battery Solutions, the lithium-ion joint venture with Hangcha behind the Le Mans battery plant reported here in July.

For UK plant hire firms and agricultural dealers, rental demand pulling European telehandler volumes upward is worth reading alongside the order book. Six months of visibility suggests lead times are firming rather than easing.

The 295,000 sq ft facility was formally opened on 5 August, although production had already begun in July. It takes the Columbus campus to 1.9 million sq ft in total and adds 140 jobs, bringing employment at the site to more than 2,100.

The plant is dedicated to electric models, building the Class 1 stand-up counterbalance forklift for both the Toyota and Raymond brands. Concentrating electric production in a purpose-built facility, rather than adapting existing lines, reflects how far the balance of the market has moved.

Brett Wood, President and Chief Executive of Toyota Material Handling North America, said that 66% of all lift trucks sold in North America were electric in 2023, and that the figure now stands at approximately 70%.

Tony Miller, Chief Supply Officer, said the factory was the result of decisions taken years earlier, describing it as "the result of thinking beyond today". Koichi Ito, President of parent company Toyota Industries Corporation, said the facility demonstrated the group's long-standing approach to innovation.

The investment is notable less for its size than for its focus. Manufacturers have been announcing electric models for some years, but committing nine-figure sums to capacity that builds electric trucks exclusively is a firmer signal about where volume is expected to come from.

The trend is familiar to British operators. Electric models have accounted for the majority of counterbalance sales in the United Kingdom for some time, driven by lower running costs, indoor air quality requirements and the practical difficulties of refuelling internal combustion trucks on multi-shift sites.

For dealers and end users, the more immediate questions raised by a shift of this scale tend to be about battery chemistry, charging infrastructure and residual values rather than the trucks themselves.

Revenue for the quarter was $812.9 million, down from $956.6 million a year earlier. The operating loss narrowed sequentially to $18.4 million from $28.0 million in the first quarter, but remained wider than the $8.5 million loss recorded in the second quarter of 2025.

Bookings were the brighter figure at $680 million, up 17 percent on the first quarter and the fourth quarterly increase in a row. The company said improved demand and higher bookings should support increased shipments and revenue, but that customer delivery schedules and sourcing transitions had pushed back the timing of the recovery, with the strongest improvement expected in the latter part of the year.

Tariffs remain the central problem. Costs on steel, components and other imported materials are still elevated, and while pricing, sourcing and product-cost measures are expected to deliver increasing benefit through the second half, the company does not expect to offset all tariff-related expense.

The result sits awkwardly alongside the European reporting season. KION and Manitou both improved their profitability over the same period, and Konecranes reported a record order book last month. The common thread across all four is that orders are recovering faster than margins.

Hyster and Yale are long-established names in the UK, and the group also owns Bolzoni, the attachments manufacturer, and Nuvera, its fuel cell business. A weak year for the parent does not translate directly into difficulty for British dealers, whose trading conditions are set by UK demand rather than North American tariffs.

It is worth reading the loss for what it is. Revenue fell while orders rose, which is the signature of a manufacturer working through a thin order book taken in a weaker period while a better one builds up behind it. The question is whether the cost measures land before the improved volume arrives.

The platform is built for 24-hour, multi-shift environments. EnerSys quotes extra-fast charging and opportunity charging of up to 300 percent nominal energy throughput per day, which the company says makes it suitable for up to three shifts a day in heavy-duty warehouse and distribution centre applications.

The batteries use a modular construction that delivers high energy content while fitting existing battery trays and supporting a wide range of forklift models. Tailored energy configurations are offered so that packs can be matched to individual truck types, and the modular build is also intended to make dismantling and recycling easier at end of life.

Safety and control come from the company's own battery management system, carried over from the established NexSys iON platform.

The tray compatibility is the commercially interesting part. One of the practical obstacles to converting a mixed lead-acid fleet has been that lithium packs frequently do not fit the compartments in trucks already on site, forcing operators to change batteries and trucks at the same time. A pack that fits existing trays allows a fleet to convert gradually, truck by truck, as leases fall due.

Opportunity charging is the other half of the argument. A lead-acid operation running three shifts typically needs a battery change room, spare batteries and the labour to swap them. Charging during breaks removes that requirement, and for many operators the space and labour saved is a larger number than the energy saving.

Energy is already high on the agenda for British operators. The report published this month by Consultus Sustainability and its partners found widespread concern about energy costs across the materials handling sector, but limited action so far in response.

Group revenue for the six months to June rose 3.5 percent to €5.687 billion. Adjusted EBIT increased 11.6 percent to €429.6 million and the adjusted EBIT margin improved 60 basis points to 7.6 percent. Net income was €207.6 million, more than four times the €47.9 million reported a year earlier.

The two segments moved in opposite directions. Industrial Trucks & Services, the forklift business, saw revenue slip 1.4 percent to €4.079 billion, though adjusted EBIT still rose 1.9 percent to €365.6 million at a 9.0 percent margin. Intelligent Automation Solutions grew revenue 17.6 percent to €1.629 billion, with adjusted EBIT up 35.3 percent to €106.0 million.

Order intake was the weak point, down 6.6 percent to €5.794 billion. Free cash flow also fell sharply, to €22.2 million from €161.9 million.

Rob Smith, Chief Executive, said KION had "performed well in the first half of financial year 2026 against a backdrop of heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty". The group narrowed its full-year guidance to revenue of €11.525 billion to €12.025 billion and adjusted EBIT of €880 million to €980 million.

The order figure is worth sitting with, because it runs against Konecranes, which reported an order book 16.1 percent higher only days earlier, and against the UKMHA and Oxford Economics forecast of around 9.4 percent growth in UK forklift orders this year. Konecranes sells heavily into ports and heavy industry, while KION's industrial truck business is weighted towards general warehousing and manufacturing, so the two are not measuring the same demand.

The clearer signal is inside KION itself. Automation revenue grew nearly 18 percent while forklift revenue fell slightly – the same divergence visible across the sector, where spending on moving pallets automatically is growing faster than spending on trucks to move them manually.

Linde Material Handling and STILL are both substantial presences in the UK, and a profitable half at group level combined with a softer order book is the condition under which manufacturers tend to compete harder on price. For fleet buyers approaching renewal, that is not the worst backdrop.

The two companies announced a strategic partnership in May 2025, under which EP Equipment builds the bulk of the AntOn by Jungheinrich range. AntOn was created to give Jungheinrich a presence in the mid-tech segment – standardised, lower-cost trucks for operators who do not need the specification of the company's premium lines.

Jungheinrich describes the stake as a long-term investment and a further step in delivering Strategy 2030+, the plan under which the group is targeting €10 billion in revenue and a 10 percent EBIT margin by 2030. EP Equipment is expected to extend the AntOn line-up, concentrating on electric counterbalance and warehouse trucks.

Dr Lars Brzoska, Chief Executive of Jungheinrich, described EP Equipment as "one of the most successful and fast-growing companies in the material handling sector", adding that "with our investment, we are creating a strong foundation for our long-term partnership". John He, Chief Executive of EP Equipment, called the investment "an expression of mutual trust" that "underlines the close ties between our companies".

The mid-tech segment has become the most contested part of the European market. Chinese manufacturers have taken share at the value end for several years, and the established European names have responded either by building competing ranges themselves or, as here, by sourcing them from the manufacturers already doing it well.

Taking equity rather than relying on a supply contract alone is the significant part. Jungheinrich frames the stake as a foundation for deeper cooperation on technology and innovation and on product portfolio and market development, rather than as any claim over EP Equipment's production. What it buys is alignment – a supplier the group now holds a financial interest in, at a point when mid-tech volume is growing.

For UK buyers, the practical effect is a wider price ladder from a single source. A dealer can offer a premium Jungheinrich truck and an AntOn machine from the same supplier, with one parts and service relationship behind both.

Jungheinrich has been active on several fronts this year, having also taken a stake in Navflex to develop autonomous truck loading and unloading, reported below.

The compact vehicle combines an 800kg rear load platform with a towing capacity of up to 10 tonnes. This allows a single machine to transport tools, components and equipment while also towing trailers and other wheeled loads around a site.

The P0810-E uses a 48V electric power system with a quoted battery capacity of 360Ah. It has a maximum travelling speed of 25km/h, making it suitable for internal transport operations where manoeuvrability and controlled site speeds are more important than road-going performance.

The rear platform can be configured for different applications, allowing the vehicle to support aviation ground handling, engineering, manufacturing, maintenance and warehouse operations. Its compact dimensions also make it suitable for sites where larger commercial vehicles would be difficult to manoeuvre.

Electric operation eliminates exhaust emissions at the point of use and reduces noise compared with traditional diesel utility vehicles. Electric drivetrains also contain fewer moving components, potentially reducing routine maintenance requirements and helping operators keep vehicles in service for longer.

Although much of the materials handling industry's transition to electric power has focused on forklift trucks, vehicles such as the Charlatte P0810-E show that the same change is taking place across supporting transport equipment.

For organisations replacing ageing diesel vehicles, a machine capable of both carrying and towing could help simplify fleets, improve vehicle utilisation and support wider environmental objectives.

Charlatte provides spare parts and technical support for its equipment in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The framework, known as Workplace Transport Groupings, came into force on 19 January 2026 and changes how materials handling equipment is categorised for operator training, certification and risk assessment. It covers counterbalance forklifts, reach trucks, order pickers and a range of specialist workplace transport machinery.

Aprolis Training Solutions says it is still receiving a high volume of questions from organisations unsure what the guidance means for them, more than six months after it took effect. Jason Howard, Training Solutions Manager at the company, described it as "the biggest shift we've seen in workplace transport training for several years".

The old categories had become blurred over time, particularly where the capabilities of different machines overlapped or where newer equipment did not fit any existing classification neatly. The revised system is intended to simplify the categories, remove those overlaps and reflect the way machinery is actually used in modern warehouses, logistics hubs and distribution centres.

The practical risk lies in the records. Training delivered or logged under the previous categorisation no longer meets the updated expectations, and completed training may not be regarded as valid if it has been recorded under the wrong equipment category. Some operators will now fall into a different grouping than before, which can mean conversion or refresher training is required.

Any new training or refresher starting after 19 January must use the new codes, even where existing certificates remain valid until their expiry date.

Mixed fleets are where this bites hardest. A site running counterbalance trucks, reach trucks and powered pallet trucks may have operators whose certificates were issued under categories that no longer map cleanly onto what they drive. Where the records do not match the equipment under the new framework, the exposure is not only a safety one – it can surface during an audit or inspection, and it can complicate an insurance claim after an incident.

The check is straightforward enough to be worth doing now rather than at renewal. Take the list of trucks on site, take the list of certificated operators, and confirm that each certificate names a grouping that covers the machine the person actually drives.

The Finnish group, whose product range spans heavy-duty lift trucks, reach stackers and port handling equipment as well as industrial cranes, published its January to June figures on 24 July.

Pre-tax profit for the half fell 9.1 percent to €207.6 million and revenue was 5.3 percent lower at €1.93 billion. Second-quarter operating profit dropped 12.6 percent year on year to €119.6 million, on net sales of €1.02 billion, down 2.8 percent in comparable currencies. The comparable EBITA margin for the quarter stood at 12.7 percent.

Orders told a very different story. Order intake for the half rose 6.9 percent to €2.3 billion, with second-quarter intake up 13.4 percent in comparable currencies at €1.24 billion. The order book closed the period at €3.38 billion, 16.1 percent higher than a year earlier.

Konecranes expects net sales in 2026 to remain at approximately the same level or increase compared with 2025, with the comparable EBITA margin also roughly unchanged.

The shape of the result – softening revenue and profit against a strengthening order book – chimes with the forecast from UKMHA and Oxford Economics that UK forklift orders will grow by around 9.4 percent this year. Demand appears to be returning ahead of the margins, with work won now feeding through to revenue over the coming quarters.

For dealers and end users, a rising order book across the sector is also the point at which lead times typically start to lengthen again, after a period in which improved supply chains had been shortening them.

The five machines cover three-wheel and four-wheel counterbalance, reach truck, pallet truck and stacker formats. Notably, these are mainstream truck types rather than purpose-built automation platforms, suggesting an intention to automate the equipment operators already run rather than sell them something separate.

All five are built on a common technical foundation combining 3D LiDAR, multi-view depth cameras and what the company describes as an edge-cloud collaborative industrial large model. Hangcha says this gives the trucks environmental understanding, natural-language task comprehension, autonomous load handling, motion planning and proactive safety.

Natural-language instruction is the departure from convention here. Most automated handling equipment still requires tasks to be defined through fixed routes and pre-set rules, so a truck that can be told what to do in ordinary language would change how such fleets are commissioned and reconfigured.

Beyond individual trucks, Hangcha demonstrated cluster-level capabilities including distributed multi-vehicle scheduling, digital twin visualisation, remote resolution of anomalies and automatic charging.

The company presented the event as marking its transformation from a forklift manufacturer into a technology-driven provider of intelligent logistics solutions. Hangcha is China's largest forklift manufacturer and recently opened a lithium-ion battery plant at Le Mans in France in partnership with Manitou.

The announcement lands in a segment that has become busy over the past year, with ABB, STILL and Jungheinrich all moving on autonomous handling. The common thread is the loading dock and pallet movement between goods-in and racking, where operators see the clearest case for removing manual driving.

The programme replaces ageing diesel-powered equipment with electric alternatives and introduces shore power for vessels at berth, allowing ships to shut down auxiliary engines while alongside. DP World expects it to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 6,000 tonnes a year, while improving air quality, reducing noise and increasing operational reliability for customers.

The financing is structured around more than the EBRD loan alone. A grant of €19.7 million comes through the European Union's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility, part of the Connecting Europe Facility, with the EBRD acting as the EU's implementing partner. A further €7.5 million is provided under Romania's Transport Programme 2021-2027.

The announcement comes only days after DP World put its first fully electric reach stacker into service at the Port of Santos in Brazil, reported here on 16 July – two electrification projects on different continents inside the same month.

Port and terminal handling equipment has been slower to electrify than warehouse fleets, and for understandable reasons: duty cycles are long, loads are heavy and the power draw of a reach stacker or straddle carrier is an order of magnitude beyond a counterbalance truck. Grant-supported schemes of this kind are increasingly how the step is being funded.

For UK operators watching the same transition, the Constanta project is a useful indication of the scale of investment involved in converting a terminal rather than a warehouse, and of the blend of commercial lending and public funding being used to make the numbers work.

The story began in 1956 with the LA model, Toyota's first forklift truck. Seven decades on, the company's counterbalance range spans electric, lithium-ion, diesel and LPG power, covering everything from compact warehouse work to heavy outdoor duty.

Among the developments Toyota highlights from that period is the System of Active Stability (SAS), introduced in 2002. The system monitors the truck's operating conditions and intervenes to reduce the risk of tip-over – still the single largest cause of serious forklift injuries and fatalities – and became one of the more widely imitated safety technologies in the sector.

Toyota attributes much of its approach to the Toyota Production System, the manufacturing philosophy built around quality, efficiency and continuous improvement that originated in the wider Toyota group and has since been adopted well beyond the automotive and materials handling industries.

The company says its focus for the coming years rests on three areas: electrification, automation and connected solutions. That mirrors the direction of the wider market, where electric trucks now account for the substantial majority of global forklift sales and telematics is increasingly treated as standard rather than optional.

For UK operators, the anniversary is a reminder of how much the counterbalance truck has changed while its basic job has not. The core principle – a rear counterweight balancing a load carried ahead of the front axle – remains exactly as it was in 1956.

Peter Hutchinson, 60, was helping to load bales of plastic waste into a shipping container on 4 November 2021 when a bale slipped from a forklift truck. He stepped backwards, fell around 1.5 metres from the ramp onto the concrete surface below and suffered serious injuries. He died in hospital on 23 November 2021.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the company had failed to properly assess the risks associated with the loading operation. It had also allowed employees to access ramps without handrails, despite the manufacturer's instructions explicitly requiring them to be fitted.

Investigators further found that the firm had not adequately considered reasonably practicable alternatives to working at height, such as using the existing loading bays or placing containers on the ground.

Bertschi UK Limited was fined £425,000 and ordered to pay costs of £119,258 at Teesside Crown Court on 17 July 2026, for breaches of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulations 4(1)(a) and 6(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

The fatal event was the fall, but the trigger was a load slipping from a forklift while a person was working at height alongside it. That combination – a truck handling loads in the same space and at the same moment as people on a ramp or in a container – is a familiar one on any yard running container work.

Two practical checks follow from the case: that mobile ramps in use are fitted with the handrails they were supplied with, and that the question of whether the job could be done from an existing bay or at ground level has actually been asked before anyone works at height.

The transaction, valued at roughly $325 million, follows SoftBank's decision to exercise a put option embedded in the 2021 deal that saw Hyundai take its original 80 percent controlling interest. The predetermined price values Boston Dynamics at approximately $3.3 billion — consistent with the 2021 valuation.

Full ownership gives Hyundai greater strategic flexibility over the robot maker, including long-term decisions on investment, business strategy and a potential future stock market flotation.

For the materials handling sector, Boston Dynamics matters well beyond its famous robot dog videos. Its Stretch robot — which unloads trailers and containers at up to 700 packages an hour — is already working in UK warehouses, with DHL among the major logistics operators deploying it as part of a £550 million UK robotics investment announced last year.

Hyundai's plans point to deeper integration between robotics and manufacturing. The group intends to deploy Atlas, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot, at a manufacturing plant in Georgia, USA from 2028, initially on parts-sequencing tasks, with the role expected to expand into component assembly by 2030.

The move consolidates Hyundai's position across the full spectrum of industrial automation — from its forklift ranges through port equipment to humanoid robotics — and signals where the group believes the future of materials movement lies.

The new series covers capacities from 2,200kg to 3,500kg and delivers substantial performance gains over its predecessor: lift speeds up to 65 percent faster and energy consumption up to 20 percent lower, based on VDI cycle testing – improvements aimed squarely at operations trying to move more product per shift without adding trucks or operators.

Visibility gets particular attention. The ERC-VG2 features what Yale describes as the largest through-mast window in its class, 34 percent larger than the previous model, improving the operator's forward view of forks and load. A near-zero turn radius supports work in congested dock and aisle areas.

Energy flexibility follows the pattern now standard across the industry: operators can specify lead-acid, thin plate pure lead or factory-integrated lithium-ion power, matching the truck to their duty cycle and charging infrastructure. Suspended and air ride seat options reduce shock and vibration through longer shifts.

"Supply chains and warehouse operations run on tight margins, and are pushed to squeeze as much productivity as possible from scarce labour resources," said Lauren Grady, Product Manager at Yale Lift Truck Technologies. "The ERC-VG2 series pushes electric forklifts forward with key improvements that help operations do more with less and keep total cost of ownership in check."

The launch was announced from Yale's Greenville, North Carolina base, with the cushion-tyre configuration aimed primarily at the North American market. It follows a busy product year for the brand, which also released a pedestrian detection dashboard and an automated counterbalanced stacker earlier in 2026.

The delivery comprises 15 electric internal terminal vehicles (ITVs) and three electric reach stackers. The ITV fleet alone is expected to cut CO2 emissions by more than 500 tonnes compared with the diesel equipment it replaces.

The equipment arrives as part of DP World's BRL 1.6 billion (roughly £230 million) expansion of the Santos terminal, which will lift container handling capacity to 2.1 million TEU by 2028. The operator has already spent over BRL 100 million electrifying 22 rubber-tyred gantry cranes at the site.

The results are showing up in the fuel figures: between January and April 2026, the terminal's diesel consumption fell 29.2 percent against its 2024 average.

For the wider materials handling industry, the significance is the machine class. Reach stackers — with lift capacities around 45 tonnes — have long been considered among the hardest equipment to electrify, for the same reasons heavy counterbalance trucks were: energy demand, duty cycles and charging windows. Fully electric examples moving from trade-show prototypes into revenue service at a major port marks a threshold moment, echoing the heavy-electric push seen this year from Jungheinrich's FalcOn prototype and Hyster's XTLG series.

European operators are following the same path — Kalmar confirmed this week it will supply Contargo Group with its first fully electric reach stacker, suggesting the technology is arriving in mainstream intermodal fleets on both sides of the Atlantic.

The F712 handles multiple load types and sizes – including open and closed pallets, containers and racks – at capacities up to 2,000kg and lift heights reaching 8.5 metres. ABB quotes positional accuracy of ±10mm and travel speeds of up to 1.7m/s while loaded, with certification to current ISO and ANSI safety standards.

The significant departure from most autonomous forklifts on the market is navigation. Rather than following pre-installed infrastructure such as reflectors, magnetic tape or floor markers, the F712 uses AI-enabled Visual SLAM to build and navigate its own map of the environment. For operators, that removes a substantial slice of the installation cost and disruption normally associated with deploying automation into a live warehouse.

The truck runs on ABB Robotics' AMR Studio software, a no-code, drag-and-drop suite handling setup, fleet coordination, traffic management and real-time visualisation. ABB says the platform delivers up to 20 percent faster commissioning and allows mixed fleets of tugs, movers and forklifts to be managed as one system rather than as separate installations.

The launch lands in an increasingly busy segment. STILL, Jungheinrich and others have all moved on autonomous handling in the past year, with the loading dock and pallet movement between goods-in and racking emerging as the areas where operators see the clearest case for removing manual driving.

Aaron Back, 41, a father of four, had been contracted by the company to dismantle pipework at the EMIR site on Wotton Road in Ashford, Kent. On 28 March 2023 he was working from a raised tipping bucket mounted on a forklift truck when he fell out of it onto the concrete floor below. He spent months in hospital.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation established why the forklift was being used at all: a scissor lift had been ordered for the job, but it was too tall to enter the area where the work was taking place, so the forklift and bucket were used instead.

Investigators found that no suitable arrangements were in place to manage the company's contractors and ensure safety on site. They also identified significant failings relating to unsafe work at height over a prolonged period, noting that HSE had given the company advice and enforcement action regarding the control of contractors and unsafe working at height as far back as 2013.

South East Refurbishment Limited, of Rochester, Kent, pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay costs of £27,241 at Margate Magistrates' Court on 7 July 2026.

Lifting a person in a bucket, on a pallet or in any attachment not designed and certified to carry personnel remains among the most common serious misuses of a forklift truck. Purpose-built integrated working platforms exist and are subject to specific requirements covering the platform, the truck and the way the two are used together.

The detail worth carrying away from this case is the reasoning that led to it. The correct access equipment was identified and ordered, then did not fit the space. At that point the job needed different access equipment, not an improvised alternative on the front of a forklift.