Under about 20 moves a day and 30 metres of travel, a manual pallet truck is enough and costs a fraction. Above that, the operator becomes the bottleneck and an electric truck pays back on labour alone.
| Manual | Electric | |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase cost | Low | 5–10× manual |
| Travel | Operator pushes | Powered |
| Moves per hour | 15–25 | 40–60 |
| Operator fatigue | High on long runs | Low |
| Ramp capability | Poor | Good with braking |
| Maintenance | Almost none | Battery, motor, controller |
| Best for | Intermittent, short moves | Regular flow, long runs |
Manual trucks are limited by the operator, not the truck. Once a shift involves 20 or more pallet movements over more than 30 metres, pushing becomes the constraint and throughput flattens.
Loading bays and long warehouse runs. A powered truck moves at walking pace under load without effort, so the same operator completes roughly twice the moves.
A manual truck has almost nothing to service. An electric truck adds a battery, motor and controller — but removes the manual handling injuries that are the largest hidden cost of a manual fleet.
TSG 81—2022 — Safety Technical Regulation for Special Purpose Motor Vehicles in Plants, State Administration for Market Regulation (China)GB/T 26560 — Industrial Trucks — Vocabulary, National Technical Committee for Industrial Truck StandardisationGB/T 23794-2023 — Enterprise Credit Evaluation Indicators, National Technical Committee for Social Credit StandardisationISO 3691 series — Industrial trucks — Safety requirements and verification, ISOEN 1175:2020 — Safety of industrial trucks — Electrical requirements, CENSend us your operating conditions and we will tell you which option works and which does not.
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