Most industrial operations and many retail outlets would be lost without their hard-working pallet trucks. From the largest warehouse to the smallest workshop, a pallet truck can simplify, improve and instill efficiency in any material’s handling task.
Moving pallets of products from lorries in the delivery bay or filling up containers in the shipping bay in a timely manner is of critical operational importance. Likewise, moving product parts and packing materials through the factory floor to keep packers and other workers will stopped with the items they need to do their job is the oil that keeps the factory running smoothly. Within this work process, hand pallet trucks play an important role. Often of a lighter weight than their high lift pallet truck or manual stacker counterparts, they are fast and deft with ease of manoeuvrability and ease of use.
When buying a pallet truck for the first time or making the decision to upgrade or refresh an ageing fleet, you’ll need to know which size of hand pallet truck best meets your needs. The size of truck will be determined by the size of pallet most commonly handled. They can be split into three general categories.
UK Size Pallets: Hand pallet trucks sized to deal with UK pallets will be the same length as other standard euro pallet trucks but will be wider when measured from the outside edge of one fork to the other. The standard size is a 680mm width and 1000mm length. This size of pallet truck is perfect for you if you deal with UK pallets – which have 1000 x 12000 dimensions.
Euro Pallets: Euro pallets are sized slightly differently to UK pallets. If you order materials or goods from the continent, you’ll need a truck designed to handle euro pallets. Look out for pallet trucks with a smaller fork to fork width (it should be around 540 mm from one exterior fork edge to the other). Lengths are typically 1000mm but extra long variations are also commonly available.
Printer’s Trucks: Some jobs necessitate a printer’s pallet truck – for example to move reels in the printing industry. The width between forks is the smallest of the three standard sizes, measuring just 450mm across. They are also a standard length of 1000 mm.