Warehouses spend tens of thousands on material handling solutions, such as racking systems, forklifts, warehouse management software, and other technologies. But pickers continue to push lousy carts – carts with wheels that don’t turn or shelves that can’t hold what they’re picking. Worse still, they might not use a cart at all because someone else is using the only one that works.
Meanwhile, warehouse managers wonder why productivity still lags.
Carts matter. They’re the direct connection between your picking system – simple or high-tech – and your people. When they work, the product moves smoothly; get them wrong, and efficiencies abound.
What Makes a Good Picking Cart?
The answer depends entirely on what you’re picking.
Types of Carts
- Platform carts move bulk or oversized items efficiently thanks to their flat surfaces and high weight capacity. The tradeoff: zero organization. Everything stacks on everything else.
- Shelf carts give you vertical space and separation across multiple tiers, which is critical for batch picking when you need to keep orders or product types distinct without sorting through piles.
- Tilt trucks handle high-volume movements to single destinations—restocking displays, consolidating returns. The tilting mechanism speeds unloading, but they’re too specialized for standard order picking.
- Convertible carts adapt through folding shelves and modular configurations. They have a higher upfront cost, but a single fleet serves multiple workflows, eliminating the need to buy and store separate cart types.
Regardless of the cart’s style, it needs to work. Regular maintenance keeps the wheels rolling.
The Details
Wheels
Cheap casters catch on floor imperfections, don’t turn smoothly, and create unnecessary physical strain. Swivel wheels on all four corners give maximum maneuverability but can be harder to control when loaded. Fixed rear wheels with swivel front wheels offer a compelling middle ground—easy to steer in a straight line, stable when loaded, but still maneuverable.
Comfort
Adjustable handles accommodate different heights, and ergonomic grips reduce hand fatigue. These small details make a big difference to pickers who make hundreds of trips with those carts weekly.
Weight Capacity
Overloading carts creates safety hazards and strains the equipment. Know your typical load weights and buy accordingly. It’s far better to have carts rated for weights higher than you think you need than to constantly replace bent frames and broken wheels.
The Fleet Approach
Most warehouses need multiple cart types because they’re running multiple workflows. The mistake is treating carts as random material handling equipment rather than as part of an intentional system.
- Map your workflows. What are pickers actually moving? How far? How often? What’s the typical load composition?
- Small, high-value items? You probably want shelf carts with dividers.
- Mixed loads with varying sizes? Convertible carts prevent pickers from having to make judgment calls about which cart to grab; they can get the job done effectively with one.
- Bulk replenishment? Platform carts or tilt trucks.
The operations that run smoothly aren’t necessarily the ones with the fanciest carts—they’re the ones where there are plenty of carts that match the tasks at hand, so no one’s fighting with equipment or standing around waiting.