The International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Awards for 2018 have been announced at a special ceremony hosted during the CeMAT material handling trade show in Hannover, Germany. The IFOY Awards recognize the year's best material handling equipment and intralogistics solutions as determined by an independent jury of international trade journalists (full disclosure: I am a voting member of the jury).
The aim of the IFOY Awards is to document the performance capability and innovative drive of the material handling and intralogistics sector, helping to boost competitiveness and raise the profile of the entire intralogistics sector in the public arena.
In what was described by Anita Würmser, executive chairperson of the IFOY jury, as "the toughest and most narrow decision ever made at the IFOY Award," two companies ended in a tie for the Warehouse Truck of the Year award.
The IFOY Awards are based on an audit whereby the devices and solutions are subjected to individually tailored driving or function tests, including the IFOY test protocol comprising around 80 criteria and the scientific IFOY Innovation Check. In addition, jurors and their advisory teams assess the finalists personally before voting.
The IFOY Award, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, is presented by the Association for Materials Handling and Intralogistics within the VDMA.
The winners and their solutions can be found on the following pages.