What is an industrial truck?

An industrial truck is a ground-based means of transport that picks up, moves, lifts, and sets down loads within a factory or warehouse. In industrial reality, the spectrum ranges from low-lift pallet trucks to forklifts, reach trucks, and narrow-aisle forklifts to order pickers, tugger trains, and driverless transport systems such as AGVs, AMRs, and FTSs. The decisive factor is not the list of names, but the task: mapping material flows safely, reproducibly, and economically. Anyone planning intralogistics always has to decide on industrial truck technology—it translates demand planning, warehouse strategy, and production supply into reliable movement.

Classification and differentiation in the logistics environment

Industrial trucks cover those transport requirements that would be too inflexible with stationary conveyor technology. The classic forklift truck connects goods receipt, block and rack storage, and loading at the ramp. Reach trucks and narrow aisle trucks provide high lift heights in narrow aisle widths. Order pickers link man and machine in general cargo. Route trains supply lines in a synchronized just-in-time or just-in-sequence manner. Driverless systems take over standardized routes, stabilize cycle times, and reduce empty runs. In practice, what counts is clear classification according to load capacity, residual load capacity at real load centers, lift height, turning radius, aisle width, floor quality, and operating environment; colloquial terms are helpful in everyday use but are imprecise for design purposes.

Where industrial trucks create value

In warehouse logistics, they secure the interfaces between goods receipt, storage, stock transfer, order picking, consolidation, and shipping. In production logistics, they supply lines and cells with raw materials, bring semi-finished parts to buffers, and collect finished goods. The contribution to productivity rarely comes from the steering wheel alone. A vehicle only becomes efficient when combined with shelf geometry, parking space logic, traffic management, sightlines, loading zones, floor and ramp technology, and IT-supported order control. If you want to reduce double trips, empty runs, and traffic jams, you need to define clear priorities, rights of way, and buffer areas and anchor these rules in the WMS or ERP.

Energy and drive: Availability beats brochure values

The drive system determines availability, operating costs, and safety. Lead-acid batteries are robust and predictable, but require defined charging and replacement cycles as well as ventilation. Lithium-ion batteries allow intermediate charging, deliver consistent performance throughout the shift, and reduce the space required for battery replacement; fire protection, charging capacity, and energy management must be compatible. Fuel cells demonstrate their strengths where fast refueling, long operating times, and a resilient H₂ concept come together. An honest TCO assessment takes into account purchase price, energy price, charging times, peak loads, wear and tear, service intervals, residual values, and safety requirements. Those who focus solely on kilowatt-hour prices fail to recognize the impact of availability on throughput and delivery reliability.

Safety and legal requirements: a management task with technical support

Industrial trucks move loads in close proximity to people. Legal frameworks, operating instructions, suitability certificates, regular inspections, and training are mandatory. Driver assistance systems with person recognition, speed zones, load stability controls, distance and collision warnings, and acoustic and optical signals significantly reduce risks. Even more important are structural measures: separate paths, defused intersections, clear visibility, marked restricted areas, consistent house rules. Technology helps, but it does not replace responsibility. Safety levels are measurable – in terms of incident rates, near misses, collision statistics, and downtime.

Digitization and fleet management: Data that gets the job done

Modern fleets are networked. Telemetry provides information on utilization, impact events, battery status, driving profiles, and reasons for downtime. In conjunction with WMS, ERP, or MES, this results in controllable material flows: Orders are prioritized, source and destination locations are validated, and bottlenecks become visible. Driverless systems integrate into existing processes via standardized interfaces, RTLS, QR/NFC, or laser navigation. The bottleneck is rarely in computing power, but rather in data quality. Unclear parking space systems, incorrect master data, inconsistent labels, and conflicting priorities devalue any fleet management system. Digitalization reinforces what is already there—it does not replace clean process logic.

Selection and dimensioning: The process defines the vehicle, not the other way around

The right solution is determined by the process: item geometry, load centers, target lift, aisle widths, travel distances, peak loads, service levels, noise and emission requirements, temperature and dust exposure. Residual load capacity at the actual load center, turning radius in the tightest curve, passability of transitions, and floor quality determine productivity and wear. For order picking, reaching heights, step-to-travel ratio, and ergonomic details are important. For line feeding, cycle stability is more important than nominal top speed. A robust business case not only calculates capacities, but also double plays, restarting, downtime, replacement equipment, service levels, response times, parts availability, and the qualification level of the operators.

Critical assessment: Common mistakes in projects

Three patterns emerge regularly. First: Procurement before analysis. Vehicles are ordered before traffic management, buffers, parking space logic, and priorities are in place; the fleet treats symptoms instead of causes. Second: Under- or oversizing. Equipment that is too small creates multiple trips and forces double lifts, while equipment that is too large blocks aisles, stresses the floor, and increases risks. Third: blind faith in technology. Telemetry, AGVs, and AMRs do not solve problems with master data, labeling, restricted areas, and training. Those who do not manage the process consistently build digital complexity on a shaky foundation. The result is attractive dashboards with no impact on cycle times.

Sustainability and responsibility: making consumption visible, reducing distances

Energy efficiency, noise emissions, tire wear, and carbon footprint are now part of the design. Lithium-ion reduces loading areas and improves efficiency, while fuel cells can score points in multi-shift environments, provided the infrastructure is in place. The biggest lever often remains trivial: shorter distances, fewer empty runs, less damage, longer tire and mast service life, lower impact rates. Transparency about key figures makes progress measurable and avoids symbolic measures that have no effect on the real balance sheet.

Conclusion: Levers for throughput and delivery reliability – when the process is right

Industrial trucks are not trophies, but tools. They prove their value in the cycle, on the ramp, and in the downtime monitor. Strong intralogistics are created when the vehicle mix, energy supply, safety, IT connectivity, and qualifications all fit together – based on clearly defined routes, rules, and data. This is how the fleet should be measured: by stable material flows, low unit costs, reliable delivery performance, and a safety culture that works when things get hectic.