Drive-In Pallet Racking: Is It The Right Choice or Your Storage Facility?

Posted on by Monarch Shelving

If you’re considering buying a drive-in pallet racking system for your storage facility, what sort of questions should you be asking?

After all, it’s an expensive decision to make, and if you don’t give careful thought and consideration to the matter it could prove to be very costly.

So here are a few questions you might like to mull over for starters:

  • What sort of use the product will be put to?
  • What storage product is most suitable for your business?
  • Would prefer to buy new shelving sections or would be satisfied with reconditioned pallet racking?
  • Will the sizing of the pallet racking be suitable for the weight loads it will carry?
  • Is your storage facility big enough and suitable for a drive-in pallet racking system?

What are drive-in pallet racking systems?

A drive-in pallet racking system utilises 60-80 percent more warehouse space than a standard adjustable pallet racking system. So it’s extremely cost-effective. It achieves this by removing the need for feed corridors. This sort of racking system is ideal if you have a large number of pallets that need storing in a small warehouse area. Drive in Pallet Racking is designed for pallets which are slow moving or have a long storage history: in other words, where instant accessibility is not really an important factor: for instance cold storage or facilities where products are transported in batches.

Drive-in racking operates on a LIFO system, so the first pallets added to the racking are stored right at the back and cannot be accessed until the front pallets have been removed. Drive-in racking would not be suitable for facilities which will need access to older stock regularly.

How should a drive-in pallet racking system be organised?

During installation of a drive-in pallet racking system each rack should be individually adjusted and lined up to make sure the entire system is level. Each row of racking consists of support bars connected to the rack which the pallets sit on: these bars are designed to take specific sized pallets of a certain weight. Pallets are stacked from the bottom up, first the ground floor pallet up to the top followed by the next row. As each aisle is a little larger than the pallet size, a guide rail is installed to ensure the fork lift or reach truck does not touch the racking system and potentially damage it. These guide rails are usually made from 10mm steel or installed as a wire guidance system.

If you would like more information on pallet racking systems please visit the racking section of the Monarch Shelving website, or contact us on 00161 627 3444.