Online shopping has boomed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and this has put emphasis on efficiency for the warehouses around Australia responsible for getting these goods distributed quickly and safely.
One such example is Funky Monkey Bars, a Perth-based manufacturer of freestanding backyard playground equipment, which has turned to a new fleet of four Toyota forklifts to accommodate their online sales, which accounts for about 70 per cent of total business.
Bought through Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA), the two 32-8FG25 forklifts, one 32-8FGJ35 forklift and one RRE160H reach forklift with 7000mm lift height have helped Funky Monkey Bars expand their operations.
Funky Monkey Bars has a showroom in the port city of Fremantle, whereas their manufacturing hub is located more than 10km away in Yangebup.
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Colin Burdle, Danny Carbery and Shane Roberts with Funky Monkey Bars’ fleet of forklifts
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Funky Monkey Bars director Colin Burdle says the new equipment has been well received and highlighted the ability for them to alternate between petrol and gas power, helping reduce time lost due to refuelling.
“The whole business is reliant on loading and unloading, moving stock, moving containers, unloading containers to loading vehicles, to unloading steel lorries, it’s the full lot, so our forklifts play a very important role,” he says.
“The dual-fuel we can click over from petrol to gas, we’ve got a couple of big workshops here, and quite a big distance between them.
“That’s a great function for me and that’s made a massive difference for us not having to drag gas cylinders all over the workshop.”
Features of the forklifts, which are part of Toyota’s new Gen II product range, include a digital weight gauge, steering angle indicator, tilt-angle indicator and System of Active Stability, which makes thousands of calculations per second to help with load-handling and safety.
“I like the fact that all the weights are easy to see, whereas before we had a hydraulic-type system and you had to hold a button to view the weights, but now all this detail is just given to you straight away,” Burdle says.