With UK retailers facing mounting pressure from soaring returns volumes, Pallet Truck Shop – the UK’s largest supplier of pallet and sack trucks – is urging businesses to strengthen their reverse logistics operations. The cost of returns is rising sharply, but many retailers are overlooking a practical and relatively simple solution: improving the quality and suitability of their manual handling equipment.
Returns have become one of the sector’s most expensive operational burdens. Processing a single item can involve multiple steps – unloading, inspection, repackaging, relocation, storage, or disposal – and yet many warehouses are still relying on outdated or poorly maintained equipment. This results in slower workflows, higher damage rates, and unnecessary labour costs.
While retailers often focus on front-end efficiencies such as faster dispatch, reverse logistics is frequently where bottlenecks build. Damaged goods, returns waiting to be triaged, and congested handling areas all contribute to rising operational costs at a time when margins are already tight. Quality pallet trucks, stackers and table trucks can greatly reduce physical strain on staff, speed up goods movement, and improve the entire process.
Phil Chesworth, Managing Director at Pallet Truck Shop, said, “Returns don’t just eat into profitability: they cause real friction in warehouses. When equipment isn’t up to scratch, items get mishandled, damaged or delayed. That’s when the cost of returns spirals. Investing in the right handling tools gives retailers far more control over speed, safety and product condition, and ultimately that saves money.”
Chesworth added that the company has seen a marked increase in demand from retailers looking to strengthen their reverse logistics capacity ahead of major sales periods.
“Peak season shines a spotlight on how prepared a warehouse really is,” he noted. “The retailers who cope best with returns are those who have already invested in simple, reliable kit that keeps goods flowing. It’s a small change that delivers big operational gains.”
With returns continuing to rise across e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar alike, the company is encouraging retailers to act now to streamline what is becoming one of their most expensive and labour-intensive operations.