Materials Handling

Materials handling: how to choose

Pallets, cartons, drums, stock up high - there's a tool for moving each, and the right one saves your people's backs. Here's the quick map, with a proper run at pallet jacks.

Choosing a pallet jack Talk to our team

Updated August 20265 min read

Materials handling is everything that moves a load around your site - a pallet across the warehouse, cartons down an aisle, drums to the line, stock up to a high shelf. There's a tool for each, and the right one saves your people's backs and your stock.

This is the quick map of what moves what, with a proper run at pallet jacks, and it points you to the deeper guides where we have them. If you'd rather just tell us the job, our team specs it every day.

Match the tool to the load and how far it goes: a pallet jack for palletised loads, a trolley for cartons and flat goods, a dolly or skate for a heavy one-off, steps for working up high. And push, don't pull.

1.What moves what

Start with the load and it sorts you into the right tool.

The load	Reach for
A pallet	Pallet jack (below)
Cartons, boxes, flat or stacked goods	trolley or hand truck - Trolley buyer's guide
Drums and gas cylinders	Drum & cylinder handling
A heavy one-off - machine, crate	Dollies or machine skates
Working up high - picking, stock	Work platform steps
Holding a load on a truck or trailer	Tie-down straps
Mobilising your own bench, rack or trolley	castors & wheels - Castor buyer's guide

2.Pallet jacks

A pallet jack (or pallet truck) is the hydraulic workhorse of any warehouse - slide the tines into a pallet, pump the handle, and 2.5 tonnes rolls on a set of wheels. If you move pallets, it's the first thing to get right, and our Easyroll 2500kg pallet truck covers the bulk of warehouse work. Here's how to choose one.

Spec	What to look for
Capacity	2500kg is the Australian standard for a heavy-duty hand jack - it clears most supplier loads
Tines (forks)	the Easyroll's are 1100 x 160mm - long enough to support a pallet without spearing the load behind it. Check the tine spread suits your pallet
Wheels & rollers	polyurethane is quiet, non-marking and grips sealed floors; nylon rolls easier on rough concrete. Tandem load rollers (like the Easyroll) glide over floor cracks and pallet boards where a single roller snags
Lift	85 to 200mm on the Easyroll - low to enter the pallet, high enough to clear the floor and roll
Hand or electric	a hand jack suits short, intermittent runs; long hauls or all-day use is a job for an electric jack
Specialty	cold store, meat or washdown wants galvanised or stainless; a high-lift scissor jack raises the load to bench height. We can source these - ask

A few things to get right, not guess: forks too long spear the next pallet; a high-lift scissor jack crushes the bottom boards of a standard perimeter-base pallet (it only suits skids and open-bottom pallets); and a loaded manual jack has no brakes, so keep it off ramps and gradients. Two and a half tonnes also takes real force to start and stop, so push it rather than pull, and step up to electric if it's a constant job. Browse pallet trucks and jacks.

3.Trolleys, drums, steps and the rest

For everything off the pallet, match the tool to the load:

Cartons and flat goods ride on a trolley or hand truck - our Trolley buyer's guide walks through platform, sack, 2-in-1 and picking trolleys.
Drums and gas cylinders need a cradle or dolly built for round loads - see drum handling.
Working up high for picking or stocktake is a job for work platform steps, not a wobbly ladder.
A heavy one-off - a machine or a crate - shifts on dollies or machine skates.
And holding the load down on the truck is tie-down straps - rated to the load, not just what's in the toolbox.