Electric or Manual Pallet Truck: When It Really Pays Off

The threshold is not the number of pallets per day, because no independent source publishes one. The verifiable criterion is the force at the tiller: above 360 N of initial force for a man and 240 N for a woman, ISO/TR 12295 classes the condition as critical. Our catalogue carries 12 manual pallet trucks from €657 to €3,208 and one electric-drive model at €2,345. Official distributor since 2007.

Everyone selling trucks quotes a threshold: twenty movements a day, thirty, fifty. Searching ISO, HSE, CCOHS, INAIL, SUVA, DGUV and EU-OSHA, that threshold appears in no document at all. There is no figure in pallets per day, none in cycles per hour, and no payback calculated by a third party.

What does exist, and what can be measured on site with a force gauge costing a few dozen euros, is the force the operator has to apply at the tiller. Two values: the initial force, to set the stationary load moving, and the sustained force, needed to keep it moving.

This is not a theoretical matter. Analysing the five years 2020-2024 in the transport and warehousing sector, Italy's INAIL attributes almost 50% of accidents to moving loads under physical effort or to loss of control of equipment. Only 12% involve a means of transport.

UNI ISO 11228-2 governs pushing and pulling actions, and technical report ISO/TR 12295 supplies the applied values. They are set to protect 90% of the working population.

Between 100 and 360 N there is an intermediate zone requiring analytical assessment with the Snook and Ciriello tables. There, frequency counts for more than weight: for a man at the 90th percentile the permitted initial load drops from 26 kg once every eight hours to 14 kg once every six seconds, a reduction of 46%.

Bodies in other countries quote values of the same order. The UK's HSE stops lower, at 200 N of initial force for men and 150 for women; Canada's CCOHS sits at 320 and 220. For an Italian document, ISO/TR 12295 remains the reference.

There is no published table of forces measured on pallet trucks at typical loads. What does exist is the physics of rolling resistance, with coefficients documented in the technical press: the formula is resistance equals coefficient times normal load, and for hard polyurethane at 92 Shore A, the compound used on the wheels across the whole catalogue range, the coefficient is 0.008.

Applied to a pallet truck with 1,000 kg of load and 70 kg of tare, this is the picture.

These are calculated values, not measured ones, and should be read as an order of magnitude. But already at 1,000 kg on an industrial floor in good condition the estimated initial force enters the critical zone for women and approaches the one for men. On bare concrete it exceeds it.

The ratio between initial and sustained force runs from 1.5 to 3 times depending on the wheel material. That explains why perceived effort concentrates at the start and at every restart after a pause, not during the journey.

Gradient. The German technical rule ASR A1.8 sets 6%, that is 3.5 degrees, as the maximum gradient for ramps used for manual transport. CCOHS gives 15% as the limit of physical feasibility, but that is an extreme limit, not a design criterion.

Distance. Above 30-35 metres per cycle, CCOHS recommends a powered truck. HSE treats routes up to 20 metres without a break as low risk.

Frequency. Above 200 cycles per eight-hour shift, CCOHS points to the switch to electric.

The point of contact with the catalogue is clear on gradient. The Bernardo PHW 1,5 semi-electric (€2,345) has a 500 W, 24 V electric drive, climbs gradients of 5% loaded and 8% unloaded, and travels at 3.0 km/h loaded. The ASR limit for manual handling is 6%: the two figures meet almost exactly.

An argument the other way, worth knowing before you order. The semi-electric has a turning radius of 1,430 mm against roughly 1,340 mm for a typical manual pallet truck. That is 90 mm more aisle. In narrow aisles it is a reason to stay with the manual truck.

Two models deserve a line of their own. The PHW 5,0 S carries 5,000 kg and runs on tandem rollers: above 682 kg of load CCOHS recommends checking the force anyway, so on this machine measuring at the tiller is not optional. The two Ravendo Quick Lift trucks raise unloaded forks with a single pump stroke, the only functional differentiator declared across the whole manual range. The full list is in the materials handling and work equipment collection.

The standard pallet truck enters under the pallet at 85 mm, and ISO 509 sets the maximum at 86. ISO 6780 requires a compliant pallet to offer at least 89 mm of vertical clearance in the low profile, 95 in the standard and 100 in the high profile.

From this follows a conclusion almost nobody writes down: under any pallet compliant with ISO 6780 the standard truck fits, with at least 3 mm of margin even in the worst case. The low-profile version is needed exclusively for non-compliant load carriers, that is with clearance below 89 mm. In practice: non-standard construction pallets, custom crates, display platforms and damaged pallets with broken boards or crushed blocks.

And it is not free. Going from the LOW-51 to the LOW-35 you lose 500 kg of capacity and 45% of the useful stroke, with maximum height dropping from 165 to 90 mm. The lower model costs €366 more and carries a third less.

On long forks the technical rule comes from HSE guidance PM15: the forks must penetrate the pallet by at least 75% of the dimension parallel to the forks themselves. Two EPAL pallets in line make 2,400 mm, 75% of which is 1,800. That is exactly the length of the L-1800, which is therefore the normative minimum for that case. The L-2000 works with margin, the L-2500 is for loads overhanging the pallet.

The three models with an integrated scale weigh the load while it is being moved. None of the three is type-approved, and that determines what you can do with them.

The applicable directive is 2014/31/EU on non-automatic weighing instruments, transposed in Italy by D.Lgs. 83/2016. It requires a compliant instrument subject to legal metrological control whenever the mass is used to determine commercial transactions, tolls and tariffs, the application of legal provisions, medical practice or the retail selling price.

In plain terms: anyone who invoices by weight, sells by weight or has to certify a weight under a legal obligation needs a type-approved instrument, with periodic verification every three years under the Italian D.M. 93/2017 and notification to the Chamber of Commerce within thirty days of first use. Anyone weighing for internal control, load checking or shipment preparation does not.

One technical observation that makes the reason clear. Accuracy class III requires at least 500 scale intervals above a 5 gram interval. On a 2,000 kg capacity that means a scale interval of no more than 4 kg.

For the pallet truck, manual or pedestrian electric, the specific certification required by art. 73 paragraph 5 of the Italian D.Lgs. 81/2008 is not needed. The pallet truck appears neither in the list of the Accordo Stato-Regioni of 22 February 2012 nor in that of the new Accordo of 17 April 2025, which added fruit-picking platforms, materials-handling loaders and overhead cranes without touching pallet trucks.

The reason lies in the definition: the Accordo requires certification for trucks operated by a seated rider. The Italian Ministry of Labour, in circular 10 June 2013 no. 21, clarified that the list is exhaustive and cannot be extended by analogy, expressly naming self-propelled industrial trucks without a seat among the excluded equipment.

No certification does not mean no obligation. Information, training and above all hands-on instruction under art. 73 paragraphs 1 and 4 still apply, backed by criminal penalties. After the Italian D.L. 146/2021, art. 37 paragraph 5 states that instruction consists of the practical test and that the sessions carried out must be recorded in a dedicated register, which may be electronic. And since 2023 art. 73 paragraph 4-bis also obliges an owner who personally operates the machine to train and instruct themselves: the most forgotten requirement in micro-enterprises, which make up 87.2% of the total in the transport and warehousing sector.

On inspections, the pallet truck is not in Annex VII, so it is not subject to periodic verification by INAIL or the local health authority. What does remain are the periodic and extraordinary checks under art. 71 paragraph 8, to be carried out by a competent person at the intervals stated by the manufacturer, with written results kept for at least three years. The interval is set by the manual, not by law.

Sandra Gaspar's advice

Before quoting an electric truck I always ask for the initial force at the tiller to be measured, with the real load and on the real floor. It takes ten minutes and in half the cases the reading stays in the green: that customer buys a manual truck at €671 instead of a three-thousand-euro machine, and stays a customer.

Sources: UNI ISO 11228-2 and ISO/TR 12295 (Italian translation, EPM Emilia-Romagna); Snook and Ciriello tables; HSE INDG143 and PM15; CCOHS; ASR A1.8; ISO 509:1996; ISO 6780:2003; EN ISO 3691-5:2015; D.Lgs. 81/2008 artt. 37, 71, 73 and Annex VII; Accordo Stato-Regioni 22/02/2012 and 17/04/2025; Circolare MLPS 21/2013; Directive 2014/31/EU, D.Lgs. 83/2016, D.M. 93/2017; OIML R76-1; INAIL, Dati Inail no. 10 October 2025; Bernardo and Ravendo technical datasheets.