About Forkliftaction.com

Forkliftaction.com

Overview

Forkliftaction is a business-to-business news service and online platform for the global materials handling industry, published from Brisbane, Australia, at Forkliftaction.com. Its core product is Forkliftaction News, a free weekly email and web edition covering forklifts and materials handling equipment worldwide — product launches, company results, dealer and manufacturer moves, safety and technology. Around the news service sits a wider platform: discussion forums used by technicians and operators, a forklift specification catalogue, a business directory, a jobs board, an events calendar, a marketplace for used equipment and the sister marketplace site Machinery-onQ. The platform bills itself as "the biggest global platform for materials handling", and its weekly news edition had reached number 1,303 by 15 October 2026, a quarter-century after the service began.

History

Forkliftaction was founded by Michael Leu, who had spent 15 years running a forklift sales and rental business he established himself in Brisbane, and who has described the frustration of prospecting for overseas suppliers and customers through phone books and trade-show business cards as the problem the site was built to solve. On 7 July 2000, a holding page on the Forkliftaction.com domain invited visitors to join a mailing list, and the first news edition was published, emailed in text format to just 50 of Leu's business associates. The platform's own 25th-anniversary account, published in July 2025, records that the list had grown to more than 2,000 by the end of 2000 and to 9,500 subscribers by December 2001.

The full website launched in December 2001, roughly eighteen months after the first edition, with a news archive, Spec-Checker — a catalogue of forklift models and specifications — an events calendar, a list of open equipment tenders and a jobs section. A materials handling Business Directory followed in 2003, Discussion Forums in 2004 and a marketplace for trading used equipment in 2005. The service survived the collapse of the dot-com bubble that killed many competing e-commerce projects for the industry; its first advertiser, the US company Keytroller, signed on in July 2002, followed by manufacturers including Svetruck, Bolzoni Group, Trelleborg and Heli by 2004. Later additions included a Virtual Expo, launched in 2020 as the pandemic pushed trade shows online, and a further Discussion Forum update in June 2025. Subscriber numbers, on the platform's own reporting, passed 50,000 by its tenth anniversary in 2010 and reached more than 73,000 opt-in subscribers by its 25th anniversary in 2025.

Content and Coverage

The weekly Forkliftaction News is organised by region and subject, reporting product launches — such as an auto-navigation forklift robot from Chinese maker Leapting in the October 2026 editions — corporate developments including Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks EMEA's rebrand and Hangcha's US dealer conference, industry data such as the US materials handling confidence index, and standing features such as Movers & Shakers, which tracks executive appointments, and coverage of Forklift Safety Day and national safety campaigns. Reporting is independent and news-led: the platform states that its news team, rather than advertisers, decides its coverage, and its anniversary coverage quotes industry figures such as the Industrial Truck Association's former executive director William Montwieler on its role in promoting safety initiatives.

Each weekly edition is assembled as a complete industry briefing: alongside the news reports it carries a "Fact of the Week", a forward calendar of upcoming industry events around the world, and a digest of current job opportunities drawn from the platform's jobs board, a format visible across its archived editions from the early 2020s to today. The Discussion Forums are among the platform's most distinctive features, covering technical troubleshooting, safety, training and legislation, and they draw long-serving contributors from the trade — the anniversary feature profiles a Canadian forklift training president who has contributed safety columns and forum answers for two decades after first finding the site in 2005. Practical resources fill out the offer: Spec-Checker lets users compare forklift models, the Business Directory lists suppliers by category and country, the jobs board carries vacancies and resumes from employers worldwide, and the events calendar lists industry exhibitions from LogiMAT in Germany to Modex in the United States, with Forkliftaction staff reporting from major shows in person.

Audience and Reach

Forkliftaction addresses professionals who work with materials handling equipment in every capacity — manufacturers, dealers, rental companies, fleet operators, technicians and logistics managers — across a genuinely global audience, as its regional news coverage and forum participation from Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia attest. Audience figures are the platform's own: its homepage currently states that more than 70,000 opt-in professionals access the website regularly, and its July 2025 anniversary report put opt-in subscribers at more than 73,000 and average monthly visits at around 1,000,000. No independent audit of these figures is published, and they are presented here as the company's own reporting. Access to the news service is free on registration — the site allows limited article reading before inviting readers to subscribe at no charge — which underpins an advertising-funded model in which equipment brands buy targeted campaigns, directory listings and marketplace placements.

Digital Presence

Forkliftaction is a digital-only operation. Its website carries the current news edition, a searchable archive of past editions running back through numbered weekly newsletters past edition 1,100, and the full suite of directory, forum, jobs and marketplace functions, with sister site Machinery-onQ handling machinery buying and selling. The platform marked its 25th anniversary in July 2025 with a feature reviewing its development, and its team continues to extend the product — the June 2025 forum update being the most recent announced development — while its editor and advertising staff attend industry events such as ProMat 2025 in the United States. The site was publishing new editions on schedule in October 2026, with edition 1,303 dated 15 October 2026 promoted on its homepage alongside that week's forum discussions.

Ownership and Organisation

Forkliftaction is operated by Forkliftaction Media Pty Ltd, an independent Australian company headquartered in the Brisbane suburb of Bardon, Queensland. Founder Michael Leu serves as executive director, and Ann Hofmans — who worked on the first version of the full website — is the company's chief executive, fronting its anniversary communications and its statements about editorial independence. Angie Kay was identified as the platform's editor in its 2025 event coverage. The organisation is small and specialist: its team covers editorial, advertising sales for regions including North America and Australasia, and platform development from its Brisbane office, supplemented by appearances at international trade shows. Its published contact address appears in its newsletter footers as Forkliftaction Media Pty Ltd, 63 Lugg Street, Bardon QLD 4065, Australia, and a directory listing for the company gives its telephone number as +61 7 3706 9564. The business is advertising-funded and has no print edition; it does not belong to a larger media group.

Contact and Availability

Forkliftaction News is published weekly and is free to read online at Forkliftaction.com on registration, with the current edition and an archive of past editions available on the site. Readers can subscribe to the weekly email edition through the website, browse the Business Directory, Spec-Checker catalogue and events calendar without charge, and post in the Discussion Forums as registered members. Businesses can list vacancies on the jobs board, trade equipment through the marketplace and Machinery-onQ, and contact the team about advertising through the media kit and contact pages on the site. The publisher, Forkliftaction Media Pty Ltd, is based at 63 Lugg Street, Bardon, Brisbane, Queensland 4065, Australia.