The humble pallet truck is a key piece of equipment in every warehouse and distribution centre.

It can be found in virtually any location where goods have to be moved on a pallet, regardless of industry.

They represent the second most used equipment in material handling scenarios.

Available in both manual and electric models, pallet jacks are a warehouse favourite as they are easily manoeuvrable, low maintenance, and cheap to purchase. Small distribution centres can even run their entire operations using mainly pallet jacks to move palletised goods.

Using both types requires some level of skill. The manual models are easy to move around, but the operator needs to pay attention and remember that they also need more time to bring the jack to a full stop. Electric pallet trucks on the other hand, can start and stop on a dime.

There are four major types of pallet jacks:

• The most common pallet truck you will see is the regular hand pallet truck. This is the most basic model with a hydraulic system that is pumped to lift the load and a steering handle to direct the truck. Designed to pick palletised loads and move them between sections of the warehouse, they are a firm favourite due to ease of manoeuvring.

• Low Profile Pallet trucks – These trucks are specially engineered to move pallets with very low ground clearance. This means the forks is much lower to the ground, as low as 50mmabove the ground. This feature also makes this pallet truck useful for transporting non-palletised, but bulky items such as refrigerators and cabinets.

• High lift Pallet trucks – These are not only used to move pallets and loads around the warehouse floor, they are also used to lift pallets to a safe working height. They possess a scissor lifting structure under the forks. They are primarily used for stacking warehouse shelves, as they help warehouse workers avoid the repetitive strain of bending over to pick items to be stacked.

• Pallet trucks with weighing scale – These are standard pallet trucks with a weighting scale attached. These provide the solution to the problem of inaccuracy when trying to decide what loads to carry.

When buying a pallet truck, two key things to look out for are:

• The amount of weight it can carry. Most pallet jacks are capable of lifting at least two thousand kilograms of weight. You should know the average weight of the freight that comes through your warehouse and thus be able to figure out the type of pallet jack you need.

• The location where the pallet jack will be used. Different floor conditions, i.e. slick, bumpy, rugged, will require different types of tyres on the truck. For really uneven ground, rubber tyres are best. For this situation, you can buy an all-terrain pallet truck.

Pallet trucks are easy to use, cheaper than forklifts and cost much less to use. That being said, all trained operators must be focused on the task at hand at all times. This is to prevent avoidable accidents.

Monarch Shelving Limited carries a range of top of the line pallet trucks and accessories.

Call us today for competitive prices for all your warehousing equipment needs.