Bret Bruin is the vice president of aftermarket operations for Toyota Material Handling (TMH), where he is responsible for all Toyota Forklift service parts sales and field service operations, fleet services, digital advanced services, telematics, Toyota Lean Management consulting services, and national accounts customer care. Bruin, who has worked in the material handling industry for more than 25 years, joined TMH in 2012, where he served as national strategic planning and dealer development manager before being promoted to director of aftermarket operations in 2016. Prior to joining Toyota, he held several management positions at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America. Bruin holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Indiana University.
Q: How would you describe the current state of the forklift market?
A: Over the last two years, the market has experienced a natural correction after unprecedented sales in 2021 and 2022. Toyota believes the market will grow continually beginning this year and expects gradual, healthy industry gains for the next four to five years. This provides us all with a good opportunity to identify upcoming market needs and inspire new innovations to meet the next natural increase in demand.
Q: Toyota has boosted its manufacturing capabilities in North America with the expansion of its Columbus, Indiana, plant. What does this expansion mean for forklift users?
A: Toyota is putting many exciting processes in place now to meet the needs of our customers in the future. We expect electric forklift sales to increase significantly over the next decade. Our new production facility in Columbus will allow us to quickly provide the products we expect to be in high demand.
In addition to our new factory investment, the automation we have instituted in our parts distribution center has [given us] the capability to fulfill 700 parts orders per hour, ensuring we maximize customer uptime at the lowest cost of ownership. Toyota understands customer delivery expectations are increasing, and we are making the investments and process improvements now to fulfill those future customer needs seamlessly.
Q: What are the most popular types of forklifts right now?
A: Demand for products in Classes 1–3 (electric products) continues to increase. Electric forklifts now comprise over 70% of U.S. and Canadian sales. This is driven by customers’ desire to leverage newer technology, utilize cleaner energy solutions, and lower their operating costs.
Q: You are responsible for aftermarket service. With the current shortage of skilled technicians, how can Toyota dealers ensure prompt service and repairs?
A: Toyota has the best dealer coverage in North America, with over 225 dealer locations and the largest team of factory-trained technicians in the industry. To further optimize that service coverage, our dealers embrace the principles of Toyota Lean Management to continually improve our operations by eliminating Muda (waste) in all of our processes. Utilizing our dealer coverage, lean management, and Toyota 360 support promise, we ensure our customers’ fleets are operating as efficiently as possible.
Q: How have advances in telematics improved safety for forklift operators?
A: Telematics, like Toyota’s standard MyInsights solution, provide operators and managers with the ability to better understand the state of their forklifts and the performance of their operators. Customers are provided with timely information required to maintain the truck at the optimum time as well as notifications of abnormal operating conditions of the truck. In addition, they ensure that proper battery-charging practices are followed and identify opportunities to correct operator behavior through proper training, allowing forklift operators to improve in a variety of areas.
