Raymond Offers Disaster Planning

If a natural disaster or other emergency strikes, The Raymond Corporation and its authorized Service Centers offer disaster planning and preparedness services to Raymond customers to get material handling operations back up and running.

Raymond’s recovery planning enables warehouses, distribution centers and retailers to minimize lift truck downtime, even after a disaster that may cause power outages that affect the ability to charge lift truck batteries. Recovery planning also ensures additional lift trucks are available to retailers or distribution centers that may experience a surge in business as citizens work to recover.

According to Raymond, customized disaster recovery plans are tailored to meet customers’ specific needs based on their type of business and locations. For example, after Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast in September 2008, Malin Integrated Handling Solutions, a Raymond Service Center, utilized four branches in Texas and Louisiana to provide extra equipment to 30 home improvement retail stores in the hurricane region, including 61 fully charged electric lift trucks and extra batteries.

Raymond and the retailer had an established disaster recovery plan in place to ensure that the stores in the hurricane region would receive the lift trucks and charged batteries they needed to open for business immediately after the storm.

“As part of our plan, we speak with our customer contacts on a regular basis as a storm approaches to find out how many stores are expected to be affected by the hurricane,” says Edgar Warriner, vice president of national accounts for The Raymond Corporation. “We then work with Raymond Service Centers in the area to stage equipment outside the hurricane region so it can quickly be delivered as soon as the storm ends.”

Disaster preparedness is important because, after a natural disaster, affected stores or distribution centers may not have power to charge lift truck batteries. Additionally, a disaster means homeowners and businesses need to rebuild damaged property, so companies like home improvement retailers need lift trucks to move merchandise and meet increased customer demand, explains the Raymond executive.

The Raymond Service Center network includes 21 North American dealerships with 105 branches and more than 2,200 experienced service technicians.