Guide

AGV or Forklift Operator: Comparing Five-Year Cost

WR Forklift · 2026-10-24

The comparison setup

Take a warehouse moving 250 pallets per shift on fixed routes, two shifts per day, five days a week. Compare two options: keep two forklift operators, or install one AGV pallet truck that covers the same routes.

Option A: two operators and a forklift

Purchase a 2-tonne electric pallet truck at roughly 25,000 RMB. Two operators at 6,000 RMB per month each comes to 144,000 RMB per year, or 720,000 over five years assuming no wage growth. Battery replacement at year four adds about 8,000 RMB. Maintenance at 3,000 RMB per year adds 15,000. Total: about 768,000 RMB.

Option B: one AGV and one operator

Purchase an AGV pallet truck at 120,000 RMB including mapping and integration. One operator remains for loading, unloading and fault clearing at 72,000 RMB per year, or 360,000 over five years. Maintenance at 8,000 RMB per year adds 40,000. Battery replacement at year four adds 20,000. Total: about 540,000 RMB.

The gap is smaller than it looks

The saving is roughly 230,000 RMB over five years, or about 46,000 per year — around 6 percent of the total cost base. That is real, but it is not the transformation often promised.

The number improves if the AGV runs a third shift, since the equipment cost is already sunk. It gets worse if the AGV needs frequent manual intervention, because every stop consumes operator time.

What the spreadsheet does not show

Two things usually decide the case. First, labour availability: if you cannot hire forklift operators reliably, the AGV is worth more than the arithmetic suggests. Second, error cost: damage to racking, goods or people from manual handling has a real cost that automation reduces.

If neither applies, the honest answer is that an AGV is a long payback project, not a short-term saving.

Key Takeaway

A side-by-side cost model for one AGV pallet truck against two forklift operators over five years. WR Forklift manufactures electric pallet trucks, stackers, reach trucks and AGV pallet trucks in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. Standard configurations dispatch within 24-72 hours; custom fork dimensions, lift heights and navigation types are built to order.