Electric Pallet Trucks (Powered Pallet Trucks)

Buying advice for electric pallet trucks

One machine, several names

Electric pallet truck, powered pallet truck (PPT), pedestrian pallet truck, walkie pallet truck, electric pump truck and electric pallet jack all describe the same walk-behind truck with battery drive and powered lift. PPT is the name used on training courses. A truck with no motor is a hand pallet truck.

Typical pallet weights

Weigh your heaviest pallet, or read its weight on the delivery note, before you choose a capacity. As a guide, crisps, cereals, paper goods and light packaged grocery sit well under 1000 kg; mixed cash and carry grocery pallets usually weigh 600 kg to 1200 kg; canned and bottled drinks often reach 1000 kg to 1400 kg; and flour, rice, sugar and cooking oil often weigh 1200 kg to 1800 kg. Choose a truck rated above your heaviest pallet, with a margin.

Where semi-electric earns its keep

A semi-electric truck suits sites where pallets travel a long way across a flat floor and come off the truck at floor level: drinks and flour from goods-in to the aisle in a cash and carry, customer orders across a wholesale floor, or pallets inside a chilled store. The lift is a hand pump, so there is no lift motor to charge or service.

Ramps, tail-lifts and charging

Each truck's gradient limit, laden and unladen, is on the specification sheet supplied with your quote: do not guess it. Before a truck goes on a tail-lift, add its service weight to the heaviest pallet and check the total against the tail-lift's rated load. Charge on a hard floor away from combustible goods, use only the charger supplied with the truck, and follow the manual and your own fire risk assessment.

Daily checks

Before each shift the operator checks the forks, wheels and rollers, the tiller, horn, brake and emergency reverse where fitted, the battery charge and the charger lead, then lifts and lowers a light load to check the forks do not creep down. A truck that fails a check is taken out of use until it is fixed.