Hand pallet trucks have traditionally been used to reduce the amount of effort and labor required to move goods in a warehousing environment and for loading and unloading of goods in urban retail areas.
The downside to these types of handling equipment is that the user must exert manual effort to maneuver the pallets of goods, making dangerously heavy pallets difficult to control on sloping surfaces and pedestrian streets.
The common solution has been the use of electrically powered pallet elevators that use traction batteries to control the drive and braking characteristics of the equipment. The electric lifting functions in this type of equipment also reduce the manual effort required to lift the merchandise through the pumping action required with this type of equipment.
However, the cost and size of electric pallet trucks have been a barrier for most small trucking companies in a very competitive market. This situation has now been addressed and brings with it the disappearance of the hand pallet truck.
New products on the market are now bridging the gap between traditional type of lifting equipment and electrically operated pallet conveyors. Modern products from German manufacturers such as Hanselifter combine all the required functions of the largest electric pallet trucks in one product no larger than a manually operated hand pallet truck. These smaller products improve productivity by allowing the user to move heavy pallets over 1.5 tonnes without any physical effort. Their smaller size makes them ideal for use in tight spaces such as articulated truck trailers. Now a single operator can load / unload a full 40ft trailer with goods in less than 10 minutes.
The cost issue has also been addressed with these new mini electric pallet trucks with an average cost less than 50% of the cost of larger electric pallet trucks.
This advancement in handling equipment technology may herald the end of traditional hand pallet trucks and save the efforts of our trusted delivery men who keep our businesses and supermarkets stocked with products for us cautious shoppers.
Additional benefits of these modern elevators are the economic benefits they bring to American and European manufacturers. A recent increase in inexpensive manually operated lifting equipment imported to the US and Europe from the Far East has led to a decline in the market share of domestic lifting equipment producers; However, manufacturers in China and India, for example, have been slow to produce comparable technology-driven products to the same standard.
