An industrial truck is a means of transport that picks up, lifts and sets down loads while moving freely on level ground. Pallet trucks, fork lift trucks, tractors, order picking equipment and driverless transport vehicles all belong to this family. What separates them from continuous conveyors is the free travel path: industrial trucks are not tied to a fixed conveying line but follow changing transport relations.
Definition to VDI 3586
Industrial trucks are means of transport for in-plant handling that travel on the floor and are not rail-bound. Depending on their type they carry, pull, push, lift or stack loads, or deposit them into racks. They are operated by a walking operator, by a driver seated or standing on the truck — or they run driverless (VDI 3586:2007-11, section 2). Rack operating devices, lorry mounted cranes, lifting platforms and construction machines are expressly not industrial trucks.
Four naming components
VDI 3586 names every truck through four components: the drive system (manual, petrol, diesel, LPG, battery-electric, mains, hybrid), the type of operation (walking operator, driver cab, driver seat, liftable driver place, driverless), the type of construction, and — where applicable — the type of line guidance (mechanical, optical, inductive, by transponder or by satellite navigation). This produces the code letters used in the data sheets to VDI 2198: HGU is the manual pallet truck, EGU the electrically operated walking pallet truck, EFG the electric counterbalanced truck with driver seat, EFM the reach truck, EKK the vertical order picker.
Types of construction
- Without lifting device: tractors and carriages for pure horizontal transport, for example in tugger trains.
- With low lift: lift trucks and pallet trucks raise the load only as far as transport requires (reference values in VDI 3586: lifting height around 125 mm, capacity up to approximately 3 t).
- Stacking trucks: platform and pallet-stacking trucks work within the wheel base (up to approximately 4 m lift); counterbalanced trucks pick up the load in a cantilevered position in front of the front wheels (electric up to approximately 7 m, diesel and LPG models for outdoor use and heavy loads); reach trucks move the mast in the travel direction and combine manoeuvrability with lifting heights up to approximately 12 m. Narrow-aisle and lateral stacking trucks serve very narrow aisles, frequently line-guided, while four-way and multi-way trucks handle long goods. Horizontal and vertical order picker trucks are designed for picking individual articles.
According to VDI 3586 every type of construction is also available as a driverless vehicle. Automated guided vehicles are therefore not a separate category of equipment but the automated form of the respective type; the system decision between fork lift, tugger train and AGV is covered by VDI 2710 Part 1.
Selection and procurement
For procurement, VDI 3589 structures the decision through a weighted catalogue of criteria — from drive system, capacity and load centre through axle loads and tyres to the requirement specification. In planning practice two questions come first: which transport tasks have to be performed (loads, distances, frequencies, lifting heights), and which restrictions are set by the floor, aisle widths, gates and fire protection? Equipment selection therefore belongs in the same concept as the warehouse planning it has to serve.
Industrial truck in practice: Our services overview brings together the relevant planning and consulting approaches.