Simple Machine, Serious Business

Today lets talk about probably one of the most recognized, most used, most abused, and quite possibly most underestimated pieces of material-handling equipment in our industry. The pallet jack. You know the one. Two forks. A handle. A couple of wheels. And maybe a battery. And depending on which version we are talking about, maybe an operator standing behind it, walking beside it, standing on it, or flying down the dock on it like they’re qualifying for the warehouse version of the Indianapolis 500. And that last one, of course, is exactly what we are not supposed to be doing. 

Today we’re going to talk about where the pallet jack came from, why it became such an important part of warehousing and distribution, the manual pallet jack, the electric walkie, the platform rider, and the single, double and triple pallet trucks. And being Marty, with Warehouse and Operations as a Career I’m going to take another opportunity to sprinkle in a little of the OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178 standard along the way! As we’ve learned, once we put a motor on our pallet jack, we haven’t just made our job easier, we’ve entered the world of powered industrial trucks. 

Ok, before we talk safety, let’s give this little workhorse some history. Material handlers were experimenting with low-lift trucks and platforms more than a 100 years ago. By the early 1900s, the industry was looking for better ways to move heavier quantities of material without requiring workers to carry, drag or hand-truck everything individually. 

The development of the pallet changed everything. We learned a lot about its introduction back in Feb of 2019, I think it was episode 124. Anyway I digress there a bit. Well, then came an innovation that seems simple today but transformed material handling. George Raymond Sr, founder of what became The Raymond Corporation, and employee William House developed the hydraulic hand pallet truck. On November 7, 1939, they were granted a patent for that design, along with the double-faced wooden pallet designed to work with it. Think about that combination. A standardized platform for freight and a small machine capable of slipping underneath it, raising it a few inches and moving the entire load. That changed material handling. Instead of moving fifty cases individually, we could move fifty cases as one unit. Instead of handling every carton five or six different times, we began handling palletized units. And that was our industry’s first efficiency lesson. The pallet jack isn’t really about lifting. It’s about eliminating touches. Every unnecessary touch costs time and requires labor. And creates another opportunity for damaged product or injury. 

So let’s start with the one most of us meet first. The manual pallet jack. Sometimes called a hand jack, hand pallet truck or pump jack. We insert the forks beneath the pallet and pump the handle, which activates a hydraulic system. A few pumps later, the pallet rises just enough to clear the floor. A pallet jack isn’t designed to lift a load six feet into the air. Its job is to lift the load just enough to travel. You’ll see manual jacks in grocery stores, warehouses, manufacturing plants, trailers, production areas and back rooms in the retail world everywhere. But don’t confuse simple with harmless. A loaded manual pallet jack may be carrying thousands of pounds. Once those thousands of pounds start rolling, your arms and legs are not going to win the argument. I’ve seen people try to stop a rolling pallet jack with their foot. That’s a bad plan. I’ve seen people pull a load downhill toward themselves. Another bad plan. The equipment may be manual. But the consequences are still powered by gravity. 

Then somebody said “Why are we pulling this thing ourselves?” And electricity entered the equation. Battery-powered low-lift trucks existed early in the development of modern material handling. Yale’s history, for example, traces battery-powered low-lift platform trucks back to 1919 and 1920. By 1951, Clark was introducing electric powered walkie-type pallet trucks. Now we had something capable of moving heavy palletized freight without the operator supplying the muscle. And productivity increased dramatically. But something else increased too. Risk. Because now the machine could accelerate, travel farther, and travel faster. And it could generate considerably more force when something, or somebody got in its way. 

Then comes the walkie. The electric walkie is probably one of the most common powered pallet trucks. The operator walks with the unit while controlling it through the control handle. Forward. Reverse. Raise. Lower. A Horn. And usually some type of emergency reversing or belly button switch designed to help protect the operator if the control handle comes back toward them. The walkie can be incredibly efficient for moving pallets short to moderate distances. 

One danger here is where operators can get comfortable. Way too comfortable. The most obvious danger is getting pinned. You have a machine behind you. A rack, wall, pallet, column or trailer wall in front of you. If you don’t maintain space, suddenly you’re the meat in a pallet-jack sandwich. Not today’s career goal. Another danger is our feet. The drive wheel and load wheels don’t care how expensive our shoes or boots are. We need to know where we’re standing. And its important  to remember that the forks themselves extend several feet beyond the body of the machine. I’ve watched operators clear a corner with themselves while forgetting they still had about four feet of forks following them.  

Then we step up to the rider pallet truck. These units allow the operator to ride on a platform instead of walking alongside the equipment. If you’re working in a large distribution center and moving freight hundreds of feet at a time, you can immediately see the productivity advantage. Walk 300 feet. Walk back. Walk 300 feet. Do that all shift long. Now place the operator on a powered rider pallet jack. Completely different productivity equation! But rider units introduce their own hazards. Speed, cornering, and pedestrian interaction becomes much more important. And keeping our arms, legs and feet within the running lines of the truck becomes extremely important. The rack upright isn’t going to move because our feet are sticking off the end of the platform. 

Alright, the traditional powered pallet jack usually moves one pallet at a time. And in many operations, that’s exactly what we need. But high volume distribution created another question. What if we could move two at a time? Now we start talking about double pallet trucks. These are designed to transport two pallet positions together, depending on the equipment and the application. Think beverage distribution, Foodservice, Grocery. High volume selecting and loading operations. Moving two pallets instead of one can reduce travel dramatically. And travel is often one of the biggest components of warehouse labor. If an operator or selector spends 50 percent of their time traveling, then every opportunity to safely reduce unnecessary travel can create tremendous productivity gains. I always stress to operators that there’s a tradeoff for that productivity. More freight means more weight. More length and turning radius. More stopping distance needed and more opportunity for load instability. Your empty double pallet jack and your fully loaded double pallet jack are two very different animals, and you have to be treating them as such. That’s where experience and training come in. 

Next up are the triples. Yes, there are operations using triple length pallet trucks capable of handling three pallet positions. Potentially thousands upon thousands of pounds of product. That isn’t just a bigger pallet jack. It is a long, heavy moving piece of industrial equipment. You need room and visibility. You need to understand your turning radius. And you need to understand stopping distance. And you absolutely need to understand the equipment you’re authorized to operate. We all know, or should know, that certification on one powered industrial truck does not magically make us qualified on every powered industrial truck in the building. And this brings us to our friend. OSHA 1910.178 

29 CFR 1910.178 covers powered industrial trucks. This specifically includes fork trucks, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks, and other specialized industrial trucks powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines. That means our powered pallet trucks belong in the conversation. The standard requires employers to make sure powered industrial-truck operators are competent to safely operate the type of truck they’re assigned to use. And training isn’t  “There’s the jack. Here’s the key. Don’t hit anything.” 1910.178 requires a combination of formal instruction, practical training and an evaluation of the operator’s workplace performance. Formal instruction might include classroom discussion, videos, written materials, or computer-based learning. Practical training means demonstration and hands-on exercises. Then comes the evaluation. Can the individual actually operate the equipment safely in the workplace? That’s an  important piece. Watching a thirty-minute video doesn’t make somebody an operator. And knowing where the throttle is doesn’t make somebody an operator. Oh, and having driven one at your last job doesn’t automatically qualify you at this job. Training must address the truck and the workplace. That includes things like controls, steering, maneuvering, visibility, vehicle capacity, stability, inspections and fueling and battery charging to name a few.  And workplace topics include surface conditions, load stability, pedestrian traffic, narrow aisles, ramps and other hazards unique to that facility.  

Now here’s another piece I think gets misunderstood. You may hear people say: “My forklift card is good for three years.” That’s not exactly what the regulation says. The standard requires an evaluation of each powered industrial truck operator’s performance at least once every three years. But refresher training may be required before that. For example, if an operator is observed operating unsafely, or is involved in an accident or near miss, fails an observation or evaluation, is assigned to operate a different type of truck, or workplace conditions change in a way that affects safe operation. Those events can trigger refresher training. The calendar doesn’t protect anybody. Competency does. I urge every powered industrial truck operator to check out the full standard. I promise you you’ll find some very interesting parts to it. And while I’m on the subject. I want to mention the importance of, or in my opinion anyway, that wither we’re equipment operators or machine operators, that we read our equipment’s owners or operators manual. And it goes without saying to never, ever, get on or touch a machine or piece of equipment we haven’t been trained on and certified to operate. Period ladies and gentlemen.  

And you know I wasn’t going to let us get through an equipment episode without talking about the pre-trip. Before we start using that powered pallet jack, inspect it according to the manufacturer’s procedures and your company’s requirements. Look at the forks. Load wheels. Drive wheel. Control handle. Horn. Emergency reversing device. Brakes. Battery condition. Hydraulic functions. The raise and lower controls. We’re looking for obvious damage and or unusual sounds. Test the controls. And if the equipment is defective or unsafe? The standard says powered industrial trucks needing repair, or found unsafe, must be taken out of service until restored to safe operating condition. Seriously, if it doesn’t stop correctly during the pre-trip, it probably isn’t going to get better when you put 4,000 pounds on it. Tag it, if that’s your company’s procedure. Report it immediately. And make sure it is removed from service. 

Pallet trucks spend a lot of their lives around docks and trailers. And those environments deserve extra respect. Before entering that trailer, we need to know it’s secured according to our facility’s procedures. We need to know the dock plate is properly positioned and capable of supporting the load and we need to look at that trailer floor. Water damage. Rot. Holes. Weak flooring. And debris of any kind can be dangerous. Remember, we’re not just calculating the freight weight. We’ve got product weight plus pallet weight plus equipment weight plus operator weight. That’s a lot of pressure concentrated onto a trailer floor. 

Now let’s talk about the most unpredictable thing in any warehouse. Us. People. Why? Because pedestrians don’t always follow predictable paths. Someone steps out of an aisle. Walks through a staging lane. Comes around a blind corner. Looks down at a scanner. Or assumes the operator sees them. And operators make assumptions too. “They’ll stop.” “They see me.” “They know I’m turning.” Assumptions and moving equipment don’t mix. Use the horn. Slow down at intersections. Maintain visibility at all times. Follow pedestrian right-of-way and facility traffic rules. And don’t let productivity pressure convince you that five seconds of safety is wasting time.  

Ok, it’s true. The hand pump pallet jack doesn’t get the attention that the big equipment gets. Nobody walks into the warehouse and says “Wow! Look at that beautiful manual pallet jack.” 

The counterbalance forklift, the reach truck, and order picker gets the attention. But the humble pallet jack? It just goes to work. Every day. Receiving and Shipping, Production, Order selection, Cross-docking, Loading and unloading trailers. It quietly connects almost every part of our operation. 

From a simple manually pumped hydraulic jack to today’s electric walkies, riders, doubles and triples, the purpose really hasn’t changed. Move more product. With fewer touches. Using less labor. In less time. And do it safely. That’s the lesson. 

And the bigger, heavier and faster our equipment gets, the more responsibility we accept when we grab that handle. So the next time you step onto that rider pallet jack, grab the handle of that walkie, or pump up that old manual jack, remember, that simple piece of equipment represents more than a hundred years of material-handling innovation. Respect its capacity, its limitations, and respect the pedestrians around you. Know your equipment. Perform your pre-trip and follow your training. 

We do all that to reach our number one goal. We want everybody walking back through those turnstiles, through that guard shack, or out that employee entrance in the same condition they came in for the shift. Maybe just a little more tired. And hopefully a little more knowledgeable. Until next time, be safe, keep learning, and keep building that career.