Why an All-Electric Aerial Lift Makes Sense

One underrated advantage of an all-electric lift is that you can run it with the vehicle engine off. I say underrated because it’s not one of the first things we discuss with a prospective buyer. When we first arrive at a sign company or a lighting maintenance company for a demonstration, we tend to focus on the Chariot Bucket and its installation accessories, along the Workport box with its amazing storage space. It’s not until a tech goes for a ride in the lift that we hear him (or her) say, “Wow, I can’t believe how quiet this is.” He might have three or four coworkers on the ground, having a conversation, and he’s contributing to that conversation from the bucket. There’s no yelling. Everyone is using their indoor voice.

The ability to converse with someone on the ground is especially important when you have the Chariot Bucket. The Chariot’s accessories are designed to do what the second person would be doing in a two-man bucket. That allows a crew of two to divide and conquer—one in the bucket and one on the ground. When they can communicate without yelling over a noisy truck, they can reach peak efficiency.

Here’s what one St. Louis installer told us after using the Van Ladder for the first time to install a sign: “I operated it for four or five hours and the batteries were barely drained at all. That was impressive. I like the quietness of the electric. You don’t have a big diesel running in the background, and I can communicate with the guys on the ground without having the noise barrier.” We hear some variation of this every time we place our equipment in the hands of sign installers.

Joel Haluck, owner of Signstat in Jeannette, PA, bought a Van Ladder to handle his smaller installations. But Joel’s installers were accustomed to larger trucks with two-man buckets, so they were slow to embrace the fleet’s new little brother. Slowly, though, the Van Ladder won them over, and much of the credit goes to the ability to work with the engine off. Here’s what Joel told me:

“One of the things that all the guys love is that it’s quiet. When you go out, and you’re running this truck, and you can actually say, “Hey, throw me up a nut or a bolt, or whatever you need, and the guy hears you on the ground. You’re not yelling over the truck. Customers appreciate it because the truck is not running outside their door with all the diesel fumes.”

Before I abandon the topic of noise, I should mention that the ability to hear each other clearly at a jobsite is a big plus for safety, especially when working overhead and there’s the possibility of falling objects, unseen powerlines, careless pedestrians, etc.

Two other benefits of having the vehicle turned off at the jobsite is not burning expensive fuel, nor producing stinky fumes. Most sign trucks have diesel engines. Years ago, a diesel could idle all day long, no problem. But with today’s particulate filters, idling too much can clog things up and create a service nightmare.

Speaking of service, the all-electric Van Ladder has some distinct advantages over a full hydraulic aerial lift, especially for sign and lighting companies. Why? Because most sign and lighting technicians are familiar with voltmeters. So, when a lift is having a problem, our service department can troubleshoot with the lift’s operator over the phone. Usually, we can identify the problem very quickly and get the customer up and running with almost no downtime.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Matt Berrett, operations manager at Lighting Maintenance Systems in Salt Lake City (LMS has been a fleet customer for about fifteen years):

“In my interactions with Van Ladder, they’re really easy to get ahold of.  And you’re talking to someone who has extreme knowledge of the piece of equipment, and they have all the answers. Whereas if you call any other lift equipment manufacturer, you’re getting some John Doe in engineering, and he may know one specific portion of that machine, but he doesn’t know it all. The techs at Van Ladder know that thing inside and out. I mean it’s in their skin. Nine times out of ten, it’s the technician that’s on the jobsite who has an issue. You know, his aerial equipment is in the air, and he may need help figuring out which relay has gone down and swapping it out. I mean, it’s a ten-dollar part. Usually, we carry a few relays with us, just for good measure, and you have ten or fifteen minutes of downtime and that’s it; you’re back doing your work rather than, “Oh, the lift is down.” Then you need a mobile service man to come out, who has hydraulic expertise, and a huge repair bill that comes with that. My maintenance costs compared to a full hydraulic piece of equipment is night and day different. There’s no comparison whatsoever.”

One major reason Van Ladders are more cost effective from a service standpoint is that there are no internal hydraulic hoses. Anyone who has owned a truck with internal hoses for very long knows how expensive hose kits are and how much downtime is associated with having them replaced. Using plug-and-play electrical components has kept our service costs the lowest in the industry. Year after year, our average annual cost of parts (for all in-service lifts in the U.S. and Canada) is around $300 per lift. That’s why Matt Berrett claims there is no comparison whatsoever.