The Material Handling Blog

For many of the most demanding warehouse applications, a stand-in stacker can be a fantastic choice, especially in narrower aisles. In fact, if you want to improve stacking efficiency and safety, there’s no better forklift truck than a stand-in stacker - and no, even though UniCarriers pioneered the stand-in stacker in 1961, we’re not biased!

Many other kinds of trucks can stack pallets just like a stand-in stacker, and if their purchase price is lower, they may seem like more attractive machines. But the stand-in stacker’s creative design offers some major benefits.

Owning and operating a forklift truck naturally involves many different costs. There's naturally the upfront cost of the machine itself, or regular payments if it's financed, as well as costs for routine or avoidable service and maintenance, and downtime.

Forklift safety is vital in the modern warehouse. If you want to keep efficiency high and staff happy, making sure that forklift drivers know the rules is essential. Paying attention to the regulations also reduces the risk of breaking the law, too.

Accidents can harm your bottom line and damage your company's reputation - so keeping the best practice at the top of your mind is important.

It’s possible to spend large amounts of time and money trying to reduce logistics costs by making small changes around the warehouse - but when it comes to the total cost of owning your truck over its lifetime, the driver is often the biggest factor, and can sometimes make up 70% of the total cost.

Keeping warehouse staff happy, satisfied and motivated is a challenge which warehouse managers face every day. A big part of this challenge is safety - protecting staff from injury is one of the most basic requirements, and the industry has improved greatly in this area in the last few decades.

However, staying compliant with the law and keeping drivers happy aren't the only advantages - devoting resources to maintaining a safe and ergonomic warehouse environment can also bring financial benefits.

Staying productive, increasing efficiency and keeping the total cost of operations low are always at the front of a warehouse manager's mind, and they need to be taken into account when making decisions.

Getting the right equipment, staff and suppliers can help you achieve your goals, but there's one factor which is just as important - ergonomics.