Forklift Maintenance on Long-Term Hire: What's Actually Included?
Updated 2026-08-15
THE SHORT ANSWER
On a fully maintained long-term hire, the supplier covers scheduled preventative servicing and fair wear-and-tear repairs within the agreement's hours allowance. You typically remain responsible for damage, misuse, tyres beyond fair wear, excess hours and daily pre-start checks. The difference between a good and bad agreement is whether those boundaries are written down.
“Fully maintained” is a claim, not a definition
Almost every long-term forklift agreement in Australia is described as fully maintained. The phrase has no fixed legal meaning — what matters is the schedule attached to your agreement. Here’s how to read one.
What a proper agreement includes
- Scheduled preventative servicing — at manufacturer intervals (typically every 500 hours or 6 months, whichever first), performed by qualified technicians, with records kept
- Fair wear-and-tear repairs — components that wear in normal use: brakes, hydraulics seals, hoses, forks within tolerance, electrical wear items
- Breakdown response — a stated response time, and what happens if the machine can’t be fixed quickly (replacement machine terms)
- Compliance records — every inspection and service documented; on our agreements we keep these for you because Victorian regulations require plant hire companies to maintain inspection records between hires
What you’re still responsible for
- Daily pre-start checks — the operator’s daily walk-around (we supply the checklist)
- Damage and misuse — impacts, racking strikes, overloading, water damage, charging abuse
- Tyres beyond fair wear — solid tyres last years in normal use; yard debris and kerb-hopping shorten that
- Excess hours — agreements include an annual allowance (commonly ~1,200 h/yr); run double shifts and the servicing frequency doubles too, so excess hours carry a rate
- Consumables from your side — electricity, and keeping the charging area to spec
The lithium difference
Lead-acid electric forklifts made maintenance conversations painful: watering schedules, terminal cleaning, equalisation charges, acid spills. Lithium packs are sealed and maintenance-free — no watering, no battery room, no equalisation. Servicing on a lithium machine is essentially: hydraulics, brakes, mast, tyres, and software/BMS checks. It’s the main reason lithium machines suit long-term hire so well: less to go wrong, less to argue about.
Five questions to ask before signing anything
- What is the annual hours allowance, and the excess rate per hour?
- What is the stated breakdown response time — and is a replacement machine committed in writing?
- How is “fair wear and tear” defined, and who decides?
- Are tyres included, excluded, or pro-rated?
- Who keeps the service and inspection records, and do I get copies?
Any supplier who answers those five in writing is safe to deal with — including us. The pricing page shows our included/excluded columns before you even ask.