Hand Pallet Trucks and Pump Trucks

Buying advice for hand pallet trucks

Hand, semi-electric or electric?

Buy a hand pallet truck for occasional short moves, as a backup truck, or where there is nowhere to charge a battery. When the effort is in pushing loaded pallets over distance but lifting is rare, a semi-electric truck takes the strain. For all-day use, repeated tail-lift work and heavy drinks, flour or oil pallets, an electric pallet truck is the better buy. Many sites keep a hand truck as the backup while the electric one is on charge.

Wheels for the floor, not the load

Polyurethane wheels do not mark painted or sealed floors, which makes them the usual choice for shop floors, food warehouses and cold rooms. Nylon wheels are the hardest wearing and suit rough or dirty concrete, but can mark a soft floor. Rubber grips best on wet or outdoor surfaces, takes more effort to push and wears faster.

Fork entry and pallet direction

Standard forks enter a Euro pallet across its 800 mm side and a UK pallet across its 1000 mm side. Check which way your pallets are racked and which way your lorries are loaded, because that decides how the truck approaches each pallet. Long forks carry two pallets end to end, wide forks suit UK pallets entered across the long side, and low height trucks suit pallets with a low entry. Tell us what you lift and we confirm the fork size on your written quote.

Daily checks and thorough examination

Before each shift, check that the forks are straight and not cracked at the heel, that the wheels and rollers turn freely with no flat spots or trapped debris, and that the truck lifts and lowers a light load without creeping down. A truck that fails a check comes out of use until it is fixed. Ask a competent person whether LOLER thorough examination applies to your trucks, and keep a simple log of checks against each truck's serial number.

Tail-lifts and vans

Before a pallet truck goes on a tail-lift, add the truck's own weight to the heaviest pallet and check the total against the tail-lift's rated load. Check too that the platform is long enough for the truck and the pallet together.