Pallet truck with scales: weigh the pallet where it stands

What a weighing pallet truck actually does

It is an ordinary hand pallet truck, also called a pump truck or a pallet jack, with load cells built into the fork frame and a display mounted where the operator can read it. You run the forks into the pallet, pump it clear of the floor, let the reading settle, and you have the weight. Nothing else moves and no second machine is involved.

Everything else about the truck is the same as the plain version in the hand pallet truck range: a hydraulic pump unit, a tiller arm with raise, neutral and lower, steer wheels and load rollers. A manual hydraulic pallet truck with a scale rated 2 to 3 t on 1150 mm forks is from £160 ex VAT, so the weighing sits on top of a truck you were buying anyway.

The display is the part that varies. Some versions carry a simple readout on the chassis, others a digital head with hold and tare functions on the handle. Ask for the display position and the functions in writing, because that is what the operator lives with every day.

Where weighing on the forks saves money

The value is almost never the weight itself. It is the handling you stop doing, and the money you stop losing on weights nobody checked.

• Goods-in checks. A pallet that arrives light against the delivery note is a claim you can only make if you weighed it before it was broken down and put away.
• Outbound freight. Carriers charge by weight and by volume, and a pallet declared at the wrong weight usually comes back as an adjustment on the invoice weeks later.
• Waste and recycling. Cardboard, plastic and food waste are often collected on a weight basis, and your own figure is the only one you can argue from.
• Production and batching. Weighing a part pallet of raw material on the way to the line is faster than a trip to a platform scale in another part of the building.
• Stock counts. For anything sold by weight, a fork reading is a quick sense check on a pallet without counting cases.

In a cash and carry or a small factory the second handling is the real cost. A floor scale needs a flat, level spot, floor space that could be holding stock, and a pallet on and off it. The truck does it in the aisle.

Pallet truck with scales: models and guide prices compared

These are guide prices in GBP ex VAT from the current scale pallet truck listings. Freight, VAT and the final figure for your quantity are confirmed on your written quote.

The pattern is straightforward: the weighing is the difference, and within the weighing trucks the money goes on the instrument and the display rather than on the chassis. Heavier duty weighing builds are listed above these figures, and the options that apply to your order are set out on the quote.

Is a weighing truck better value than a floor scale?

If you already own a verified pallet floor scale that sits on the goods-in route, and the pallets pass it anyway, a weighing truck adds little. Buy the plain truck from £76 ex VAT and keep the scale busy.

The case changes when the scale is in the wrong place. If the pallet has to be driven to the scale, set down, weighed and picked up again, you are paying for two extra movements on every pallet, plus the floor space the scale occupies. A truck with the scale on board from £160 ex VAT does the weighing during a movement you were making anyway.

It also changes when you need more than one weighing point. Two trucks with scales in two bays cost less to run than a single scale that both bays queue for, and neither bay loses floor space.

Trade approved or indication only: which readout do you need?

This is the question that catches buyers out, and it is worth settling before you order rather than after.

If the weight is used to work out what someone pays, you are weighing for trade. Selling goods by weight, charging a customer freight on a weight you recorded, or buying scrap and waste by weight all come under that heading, and the instrument has to be a trade approved type that has been verified, with the markings to show it. Trading standards can ask to see that.

If the weight is for your own purposes, checking a delivery against a note, sense checking a pallet before it goes on a vehicle, keeping an eye on waste volumes, then an indication only readout does the job and costs less.

Say which of the two you need in your enquiry. Trade approved versions, the certification that comes with them and the arrangements for reverification are confirmed on your written quote, and a readout that was never approved cannot be made approved afterwards.

What to check before you buy a pallet truck with scales

Six things decide whether the truck suits the floor it will work on.

1. Capacity against your heaviest pallet. Most UK trade pallets sit inside a 2 to 3 t rating, which is what the common weighing versions carry. Weigh your worst case before you choose, not your average.
2. Fork length. 1150 mm is the standard length and suits a 1200 by 1000 mm pallet. 1220 mm suits longer loads, and the digital version at from £245 ex VAT is offered either way.
3. Lowered height. Low profile pallets, stillages with shallow feet and some vehicle tail lifts need a truck whose forks drop lower than standard, so state what you are entering.
4. Wheels. Polyurethane runs quietly and kindly on sealed concrete; nylon takes rough yards and grit. The weighing hardware does not change that choice.
5. The environment. Wash down areas, chillers and anywhere salted or wet will take paint off a standard chassis. A galvanised or stainless steel pallet truck body is the answer there, and a weighing version in that finish can be quoted.
6. Keeping it right. A weighing truck is work equipment and comes under PUWER, so it needs the same inspection and maintenance regime as the rest of your handling kit, plus a calibration interval for the scale. Agree who recalibrates it and how often before the first one arrives.

Prices are guide prices in GBP ex VAT. A written quote by email confirms price, freight, duty, VAT and lead time, and is valid for 30 days.