Pedestrian route
December 1st 2004

Today’s wide range of pedestrian trucks offers benefits in terms of health and safety, productivity and investment costs. Charlotte Stonestreet spoke to Robert Stanley, managing director of Stanley Handling

Ever since the company was formed in 1948, pedestrian trucks have been a core product for Stanley Handling.

From the most basic hand-pushed unit lifting relatively light loads, to precision four-way machines with capacities in excess of 5000kg, the company has always seen the pedestrian truck market as an important entity in its own right, rather than simply an ‘add-on’ to the dominant forklift arena.

This tradition is upheld today by managing director, Robert Stanley, son of the company’s original founders.

Vision

‘A lot of the larger forklift manufacturers tend to overlook the pedestrian truck. Often they do not have the vision to see that the customer who needs a pedestrian truck today is potentially the forklift user of tomorrow.’ As a company that also offers conventional forklifts, this is good news for Stanley Handling. However, as Stanley is keen to point out, there are many applications that simply do not require a forklift and many more where a pedestrian truck offers a more appropriate solution anyway.

With this in mind it is probably worth mentioning that pedestrian trucks – machines the operator either pushes or walks behind – cover a wide range of different types of equipment including pallet trucks, mobile scissor tables, work positioners and stackers.

According to Stanley, one of the main business drivers in the pedestrian truck market over the recent past has been health and safety issues, particularly those surrounding manual handling. Increasingly, the company is seeing demand for units designed to lift relatively small weights in restricted spaces.

‘If you had said to me a few years ago that there would be need for a pedestrian truck to lift loads of 5kg and speed is of the essence, I’d have said you were talking nonsense. But the fact is we sell lots of little pedestrian stackers with battery lift just for handling 5kg loads, particularly into hospitals,’ says Stanley.

The commitment to increased health and safety does not end simply with the fact that pedestrian trucks can, by their very nature, help to reduce the risk of injury from manual handling.

Operator attitude

Forklift trucks are notorious for being involved in many workplace accidents. This is something that, argues Stanley, can partly be put down to a particular attitude that tends to emerge amongst forklift operators.

‘It’s like somebody going to the funfair and getting on the dodgems – they suddenly take on a different persona,’ he says. ‘The fork truck driver thinks he is driving a car, he thinks he’s in control. Sometimes he loses his sense of perspective and thinks that everything revolves around him. As a result he can become unaware of other things that are going on around him.’ As well as the obvious danger to those working in the same area as the forklift and the increased risk of damage to stock and equipment, it is felt that this mindset can also have a detrimental effect on productivity. According to Stanley, whereas the forklift operator sees themselves as just that, the operator of a pedestrian truck is more likely to be multi-tasking, offering better overall value.

In fact, seeming to back up these views, Stanley reports that three top UK companies have recently banned the use of forklifts in assembly and production areas, choosing instead to go down the pedestrian truck route.

Training

Even though there are at present no formal legal requirements for operators of pedestrian trucks to undergo comprehensive training, it is something that Robert Stanley feels is sadly lacking in the handling industry.

Whether it is part of an overall safety awareness course, or specific to the use of pedestrian trucks, comprehensive training is something all users will benefit from.

‘People don’t understand that even with the simple hand pallet truck, operators should be trained,’ says Stanley. ‘I have known operators to use them as scooters, or become distracted and lower 1000kg on to another person’s toe.’ Stanley also emphasises that pedestrian trucks should be subject to an annual maintenance inspection in order to meet LOLER/PUWER requirements.

‘We are increasingly coming across situations where insurance companies refute a claim on the basis that no service contract is in existence and that duty of care has not been carried out,’ he says. ‘This situation also applies when those who use the equipment have not been trained and certificated.’ As well as the health and safety and productivity benefits offered by pedestrian trucks, there are also great financial advantages to be had. Many people are simply unaware of the huge range of tasks that can be carried out by the pedestrian trucks now available and often end up spending more than they need to on a larger, more sophisticated solution than is strictly necessary.

So, if you think you could benefit from using a pedestrian truck, whatever the handling task you need fulfiled, contact Stanley Handling and the chances are that they will be able to provide you with a valuable solution.

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