Folding step ladder or fixed rolling steps: which fits a working aisle

Folding step ladder or fixed rolling steps: which for your aisle?

Both do the same job, which is to put a picker a metre or so higher with both feet on something flat and both hands free. The difference shows up in the seven hours of the shift when nobody is standing on them.

A folding step ladder closes up and leans against a racking leg, a wall or the back of a door, so the aisle it serves is clear for a pallet truck, a scrubber or a roll cage coming through. A fixed rolling platform does not fold. It sits on castors where you left it, and it needs a parking spot that is genuinely out of the way, not a spot that is out of the way until the next delivery lands.

Put simply: if the aisle does anything other than picking, go folding. If the steps live at one pick face, in a stock room or at a goods in bench with a corner of their own, a fixed platform buys you more standing area and a better rail for the money. Across the steps and ladder truck range the folding sets start at £44 ex VAT, bulk price and the large fixed platforms reach £96 ex VAT, bulk price.

What each set costs, and what you get for the money

The jump from a folding steel set with a movable roller at £44 ex VAT, bulk price to a large steel platform rolling ladder at £96 ex VAT, bulk price is not really a jump in height. It is a jump in how long somebody can comfortably stand up there. Guide prices are in GBP ex VAT, and the written quote confirms the price, the freight and the rating for the set you pick.

Where a folding step ladder lives between jobs

This is the question most buyers skip, and it is the one that decides whether the steps get used. If a picker has to walk to the other end of the building to fetch them, they will stand on the bottom shelf instead, and that is where the sprained ankles come from.

• Folded width and depth matter more than folded height. Measure the gap you actually have: the end of a racking run, the back of a stock room door, the side of a packing bench.
• A set that folds but weighs too much to lift one handed will sit where it was last used. Look for one with a roller on the bottom edge so one person can tip it and walk it.
• Mark the parking spot on the floor. Steps with a home get put back; steps without one end up in the fire exit.

A two step stainless ladder trolley from £40 ex VAT is the exception that proves the point. It is small enough to live where the work is, which is why it suits counters, chillers and back bars rather than a long warehouse aisle.

Busy trading weeks: steps that have to move every hour

From the middle of November a shop floor or cash and carry aisle changes shape several times a day. Pallets land in the aisle, seasonal stacks go up, the night team restocks and somebody scrubs the floor before opening. Steps that are awkward to move become an obstruction, and an obstruction gets shoved rather than parked.

Two things make the difference in a busy week. The first is weight and balance, so one person can move the set without help. The second is the castors and brakes: a spring loaded castor that drops the frame onto fixed feet as soon as somebody steps on it is far better in a crowded aisle than a free rolling castor with a foot brake that nobody applies.

If you are bringing in extra staff for the season, buy the set that is hardest to use wrongly. A platform with a full rail and anti slip treads, such as the folding platform ladder truck from £68 ex VAT, bulk price, takes less explaining on day one than a tall set with an open top step.

What to check before you buy

1. Top shelf height. Measure to the front edge of the highest case a picker lifts, not to the top of the frame. Standing height plus a comfortable reach is roughly the platform height you need.
2. Aisle width. Open the set in your mind at the narrowest point. A folding set needs room to open and a body width beside it; a fixed platform needs that plus a parking space.
3. Rated capacity. It covers the picker and the load together. Most steel sets in the range are rated 500 kg, but confirm the rating for the exact model on your written quote.
4. Treads and rails. Anti slip treads for wet or dusty floors, and a rail you can hold while turning round with a case in one hand.
5. Finish. Stainless for chilled, wet or food areas; painted or galvanised steel for a dry warehouse.
6. How many sets. One for each zone that holds stock above shoulder height, plus one at goods in, is the usual count.

Prices on the site are guide prices. Send the list of models and quantities to sales and the written quote confirms price, freight, VAT and timing for that order.

Who checks the steps once they are in use

Mobile steps are work equipment, so they come under PUWER 1998: they must be suitable for the job, kept in good repair and used by people who have been shown how. There is no certificate to buy and no annual test to book, but there does need to be a record that somebody looks at them.

A short weekly check is enough for most sites: treads clean and unbent, rail tight, castors and brakes working, feet and rubbers present, no cracked welds. Anything that fails comes out of service that day rather than at the end of the week. Keep the check on the same sheet as your pallet truck and trolley checks so it is one walk round, not three.

When the job stops being about reaching a shelf and starts being about working at height for a whole shift, steps are the wrong tool. That is the point to look at a powered work platform instead.