A 1987 Kalmar forklift at ARDA refusing to retire - "We call it Genç İhtiyar- the young old man”

There is something about old machines. They have a way of telling you when they are happy and when they are not. At ARDA Lashing & Port Services in Turkey, the team has learned to listen to one in particular. Built in 1987, the Kalmar forklift with inverted forks is approaching four decades of service. When it joined the ARDA fleet about a year ago, it arrived with a few problems of its own. Today, it is back at work, moving containers around the company's warehouse and operational area.

The team has given it a fitting name: İhtiyar, which means “the old man” in Turkish. Sometimes, they call it Genç İhtiyar, meaning “the young old man”. And perhaps that is exactly what this Kalmar is: an old machine with a surprising amount of life left in it.

Not ready for retirement

When this machine arrived at ARDA, there was no guarantee that its next chapter would be a long one. The machine needed significant technical attention, with problems affecting the oil cooler, water circulation system and hydraulics. For the ARDA team, getting it back into reliable working condition was not simply a matter of replacing a few parts and sending it back out to work. It took troubleshooting, patience, testing and plenty of hands-on mechanical experience. Ali Usta, the mechanic at ARDA, played an important role in the process, working through the problems until the machine was ready to return to active service. That is where the story changes. The old Kalmar was not finished. It just needed a second chance.

You learn to listen

There is also a certain intimacy to operating a machine of this age. Modern material handling equipment can tell an operator a lot through electronics, sensors and computerised controls. The 1987 Kalmar is rather more old school. It talks through its sound, through the way the hydraulics respond and through the way it moves. For experienced operators and mechanics, those small signals can reveal when something is not quite right. A different sound or a change in movement can be enough to make someone stop and take a closer look. It is a very different relationship with a machine, one built on familiarity and experience rather than screens and sensors. And after spending time bringing İhtiyar back to life, the ARDA team knows its personality well.

Old, but still useful

Today, the Kalmar is not sitting in a corner gathering dust. It is still doing the job it was built to do. When ARDA needs its robust construction and lifting capability, this old forklift goes to work, handling containers alongside much newer equipment. That is perhaps the most satisfying part of the story. There is no attempt to pretend that a machine built in 1987 is the same as a modern piece of equipment. It is not. Its age brings challenges, and systems such as cooling, water circulation and hydraulics need careful attention. But age is not necessarily the end of the road. Sometimes, it is simply another chapter.

A machine with more stories to tell

The team at ARDA does not have one particular historic job that defines the Kalmar's working life, nor can they account for every chapter of its history before it arrived at ARDA. In a way, that makes its new chapter even more interesting. The machine arrived with a past the team could not fully know, but they could decide what happened next. They chose to repair it, to understand it and to put in the work. And now, every container it moves becomes part of its new story.

For ARDA, Genç İhtiyar has come to represent more than an old piece of equipment. It is a reminder of an earlier generation of heavy machinery, built around robust mechanics and direct controls. It is also a reminder of what can happen when practical knowledge, persistence and good engineering come together. Nearly 40 years after it was built, the "old man" is still working hard, and judging by the team's respect for it, this machine isn't ready for retirement just yet.