Materials handling solutions provider Goscor Lift Truck Company’s (GLTC’s) recently expanded Pietermaritzburg facility symbolises the most important tenet of its philosophy – to ensure that the company does whatever it takes to ensure the best possible service for its clients.
This division falls directly under the KwaZulu-Natal regional office in Durban. Moreover, it is not a standalone facility, as it is afforded abundant support and necessary infrastructure.
“While we have serviced several Pietermaritzburg customers for many years from Durban and through a local representative, we realised that we could improve service considerably for our customers if we had a fully fledged GLTC branch closer to their operations that could provide them whatever they needed more conveniently in double-quick time,” says GLTC KwaZulu-Natal regional director Michael Keats.
He elaborates, with the inland region rapidly expanding, the company felt that it was “imperative” to expand with its customer base and business opportunities. “For many years there has been a limited number of choices in lift truck service providers based in Pietermaritzburg, which has not benefited consumers, and we aim to change that.”
GLTC therefore acquired the local representative and established the Pietermaritzburg branch, which contains a comprehensive spare parts facility, a rental division and a showroom, as well as a fully equipped service facility that is equipped for regular servicing of machines and full rebuilds.
He adds that Pietermaritzburg is in constant contact with GLTC’s recently restructured head office service department, which he suggests is one of the most experienced skills upliftment and service training facilities in the country.
The company’s regional service staff are continually kept up to date with ever-changing machine technology and, to this end, special cutaway machines for “touch, feel and see training” and special bays for “direct participation training” are provided throughout the country. New and/or current machines are pulled into these bays so that GLTC technicians, new or experienced, can be instructed – or refreshed – on the machines’ service requirements.
“Of course, the best service in the world is to no avail if you haven’t got the world’s best products and, in this regard, GLTC is the sole distributor in Southern Africa of some of the most famous brands in the industry, including Crown, Doosan and Bendi,” posits Keats.
Crown is the world’s largest manufacturer of electric powered materials handling equipment, including hand pallet trucks, power pallet trucks, counter- balance forklifts and order pickers, and is renowned for its durable, user-friendly machines.
Doosan is a world-leading manufacturer of lift trucks and offers a range of quality and user-proven heavy-duty forklifts. Its oil-cooled, “brakes for life” system enables Goscor to offer a 60-month, unlimited-hours guarantee on Doosan brakes.
Bendi articulated forklifts help the operator to work faster, safer and more accurately – even in widths of just 1.6 m. Many customers have reported up to 50% space saving by using the Bendis.
“The fact that there are some significant blue-chip companies in the Pietermaritzburg area certainly influenced the decision to open a new branch there, and the company is blessed to be in partnership with such clients. “We are geared up to service the biggest and the smallest and we appreciate – and take seriously – every order that we receive and every single machine that we are given the responsibility to keep in good shape,” Keats concludes.