Some trends in the material handling industry seem to come and go, but one "newish" trend that has stood the test of time is using electricity to power forklifts and other material handling equipment. Although engineers started tinkering around with building an electrically-powered piece of equipment that could be described as a forklift in 1923, it was decades before electrical forklifts and other material handling equipment became truly standard in the industry. Interestingly enough, according to the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association, electric forklifts comprise the majority of new forklifts bought in the last 10 years. How's that for an upward trend?