This time it's personal...

The new Tergo reach truck from Atlet features a host of ergonomic enhancements designed to make the working day easier for operators on long shifts

Atlet has released its new generation of Tergo reach trucks, with a design that focuses on the person driving the truck and minimising operator fatigue and stress. The company, with manufacturing based in Sweden, sees the Tergo as "the most ergonomic truck on the market", a point emphasised by Dan Ulmestrand, product development manager at Atlet.

"Our aim was to design the world's most personal truck. By involving the users from the very beginning of the project and then continuously soliciting their input, the operators had a profound impact on the final result.

"With a market demanding high uptime and with operators often spending their entire day in the forklift, an ergonomically superior operator environment is the way to go," he concludes.

Described as "a complete ergonomic concept" the truck includes a wide range of personal adjustments and innovations (see Tergo features box), designed to allow a strain-free, variable and inviting working environment.

The company says ergonomics have been a hallmark of its trucks since the early 1990s. Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg carried out a comparative ergonomic evaluation study. "The study compared the new Atlet Tergo with reach trucks from three other makes and showed that the Tergo offered more ergonomic working postures than the other reach trucks", says Ulmestrand. "And of course, we are very pleased our hard work keeps paying off." As well as the ergonomics features that set the truck apart, Atlet has produced a truck that is designed to satisfy its customer base of demanding distribution businesses.

Chris Bates, UK national sales manager at Atlet says the trucks are aimed primarily at customers that lift "high, heavy and often" and sees the trucks as a boon for its substantial customer base in the distribution sector.

In Europe, reach trucks form the main force in most internal material handling operations - not least within food distribution, says the company. The new Tergo range is designed to cater to demanding users, as well as prove useful to less intense operations.

"In Europe we meet the demands from intensive food distribution to stack higher, heavier and faster, as well as the requirements from new fast growing businesses in Eastern Europe who require a more basic reach truck but still with focus on the operator and the productivity," says Bengt Kristiansson vice president sales & marketing at Atlet.

By extending the range and offering additional value for the users, Atlet expects a more than 30% increased market share.

"Our goal is to take a stronger position within the market for warehouse trucks, and this launch of the new Tergo reach truck is securing our position as one of the leading suppliers of high performing quality trucks", says Keiji Ikeda, CEO at Atlet.

Atlet is part of the Nissan Group and its UK operation has 170 employees, with 105 working in its service arm. The company is said to pride itself on a 96% first time fix rate, which it achieves partly by carefully standardising the parts used across its portfolio of trucks.

The company says this contributed to its strong performance during the recession where it increased profitability from around 8% in 2006 to over 10% in 2010.