Material Handling Trolleys

Not everything that has to move is on a pallet. A trolley is for the loads between hand carrying and forklift work: cartons going from the packing bench to dispatch, components from stores to the line, picked orders from the rack to the packing table, files and equipment across an office or hospital.

Platform trolleys are the flat-bed version, for boxed and stacked stock. Shelf and cage trolleys divide the load, which matters when one person is picking many small items and would otherwise stack them badly on a flat bed.

The practical case for them is that they replace the trips people make carrying two cartons at a time. On a picking floor, that is most of the walking.

Choosing the right one

Start with the load, not the trolley - what is being moved, how heavy, how many at a time and whether it stacks. That decides platform against shelf far more reliably than a catalogue picture.

Then the route. Doorway widths, ramps, lift sizes and turning space in an aisle rule out more trolleys than capacity does. Measure the narrowest point on the journey.

Then wheels, again by floor: nylon for smooth concrete, PU where the floor is coated or noise matters, pneumatic where the route goes outside or over rough ground.

What this range will not do

A trolley is not a stacker or a lifting device. Loading it is still manual handling, so the deck height matters if people are lifting onto it all day.

It does not belong on a slope with a heavy load. Most trolleys have no brake.

And an overloaded trolley is more dangerous than a heavy carton, because it moves. Specify for what you will actually put on it.