Warehouses and distribution centers are under continual pressure to handle more of everything: more inventory, more stock-keeping units (SKUs), more orders, more shipments. But adding on to existing buildings to accommodate growing demand isn’t always feasible or cost-effective. Instead, many facilities choose to increase storage density within their existing footprint by narrowing the aisles and adding higher racking—and new high-volume DCs often are laid out that way from the start. In either case, specialized lift trucks are required to navigate the narrow aisles and access high-bay storage. Among them are “man-up” forklifts that elevate the operator to perform picking and putaway tasks at heights ranging from four feet to well over 50 feet, depending on the trucks’ manufacturer and model.Working high above a cement floor is not for everyone, though, and it’s reasonable to wonder how safe that may be. Rest assured that man-up forklifts are engineered to be sturdy and to comply with strict safety standards. There also are some must-know rules and best practices for safe operation that are unique to these non-traditional trucks.THE BASICSMan-up trucks for warehouse applications are designed to operate in narrow and very narrow aisle (VNA) environments—narrow aisles generally are defined as 8.5 to 10.5 feet wide, while very narrow aisles usually are five to seven feet wide. The main categories of man-up trucks include order pickers, also called order selectors or stockpickers, and turret trucks, sometimes known as swing-reach trucks.As their name suggests, order pickers are mostly used for case picking, with operators…
