What counts as a lift truck?
In UK health and safety guidance the term is lift truck, and it covers every self-propelled truck that lifts a load on forks or an attachment: rider-operated and pedestrian, electric and engine-powered, indoors and out. The HSE's Approved Code of Practice L117, Rider-operated lift trucks, is the document that sets out how they should be used and how operators should be trained.
Forklift, forklift truck and FLT all mean the same thing in practice, and most people use them for the counterbalance truck specifically. Lift truck is the wider term, and it is the one the training categories are built on: RTITB and the ABA code system give each family of truck its own letter, so a certificate says exactly which kind of machine it covers.
Counterbalance forklifts
The counterbalance forklift is the truck most people picture: forks at the front, a heavy counterweight at the back, the operator seated between. The counterweight balances the load out in front, which is why the truck can drive straight up to a pallet with nothing extending from the chassis. Electric, diesel and LPG versions cover everything from a small warehouse to a port, with capacities from around one tonne to well over fifteen.
It works indoors and out, on hard standing, and it is the general-purpose truck for loading bays, yards and factory floors. The certificate categories are B1 (up to 5,000 kg), B2 (5,000 to 15,000 kg) and B3 (over 15,000 kg).
Reach trucks
A reach truck is the warehouse specialist. Its mast reaches forward to pick up or place a pallet, then retracts so the load rides inside the wheelbase, which lets the truck turn in an aisle far narrower than a counterbalance needs and lift to racking heights of ten metres and beyond. Almost all are electric and they are built for smooth, level floors.
RTITB category D1 is the standard reach truck; D2 covers high-lift reach trucks and D3 the stand-on type. See our reach truck training page for the difference.
Pallet trucks and stackers
A powered pallet truck, or PPT, lifts a pallet just clear of the floor and moves it under its own power. The operator either walks with it (pedestrian) or rides on it. A stacker adds a mast so the pallet can be lifted into racking. These are the trucks that move most pallets around a warehouse, goods-in bay or shop floor, and they are the first certificate many operatives earn: RTITB categories A1 to A7.
Sideloaders and multi-directional trucks
Long loads such as timber, steel and pipe do not fit across an aisle, so a sideloader carries them along the side of the truck, lengthways down the aisle. A multi-directional truck, Combilift being the best-known make, goes one further: all its wheels turn ninety degrees, so it drives sideways with the load and behaves like a counterbalance the rest of the time. These are the trucks of timber yards, steel stockholders and builders' merchants.
Rough terrain forklifts and telehandlers
Rough terrain trucks have the ground clearance, tyres and drive to work on unmade ground: building sites, farms, ports. The masted type handles like a counterbalance. The telescopic handler, or telehandler, uses a boom that extends and raises, so it can place a load high and well forward of the machine. It brings load charts and stability at reach into the operator's job, which is why it has its own training categories (J1 to J4).
Very narrow aisle, order pickers and pivot steer trucks
Three more families cover the densest warehouses. Very narrow aisle (VNA) trucks run on wire or rail guidance in aisles barely wider than the truck, lifting to the highest racking in the building; the operator's cab may rise with the load (man-up) or stay at floor level (man-down). Order pickers lift the operator to the racking to pick items by hand. Pivot steer, or articulated, trucks bend in the middle so one machine can unload a lorry and put the pallet away in a narrow aisle. Each is its own certificate category.
How do you choose the right lift truck?
Start with the work, not the catalogue. Four questions settle most of it:
- What is the heaviest load, and how far from the forks does its weight sit? Capacity is rated at a standard load centre, and a long or awkward load reduces it.
- How high does it need to lift, and into what? Racking height sets the mast; a low doorway sets the lowered mast height.
- Where will it work? Indoors and clean points to electric; outdoors on rough ground points to diesel or a rough terrain truck; both points to LPG or a modern electric with the right tyres.
- How wide are the aisles? A counterbalance needs roughly three and a half metres to turn; a reach truck under three; a VNA truck under two.
Tell us the answers and we will tell you which truck, and whether to buy it new or used or hire it.