Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career! We had an email question about Hand Trucks, a listener was wondering if there was a training course offered by anyone for its use? I gather there\u2019s a position she\u2019d like to apply for that had listed its use in the Job Description. She stated with 2 years of warehouse experience she had not had an opportunity to use one, seen them, but was a bit anxious about using it. I found this to be a great question! I\u2019m Marty and let\u2019s talk about the Hand Truck and its use today, we\u2019ll start out at my go to internet knows everything site Wikipedia: Upon a search on Hand Truck Wikipedia states:
\nA hand truck, also known as a dolly, two wheeler, stack truck, trolley, trundler, box cart, trolley truck, sack barrow, sack truck, or bag barrow, is an L-shaped box-moving handcart with handles at one end, wheels at the base, with a small ledge to set objects on, flat against the floor when the hand-truck is upright. The objects to be moved are tilted forward, the ledge is inserted underneath them, and the objects allowed to tilt back and rest on the ledge. The truck and object are then tilted backward until the weight is balanced over the large wheels, making otherwise bulky and heavy objects easier to move. It is a first-class lever.
\nSack trucks were originally used in the 18th century to move large sacks of spices on docks by young boys, from the age of 11, who were unable to lift the large sacks by hand. By using this method they were able to work as well as grown men in moving items around. Later, such trucks were amended for use in many different industries, such as brewing, where hops were moved in sacks. And Wikipedia goes on to describe materials used and a few different types of units. And there\u2019s a lot of other examples and thoughts about hand trucks available on the internet and hundreds of different images, some are really innovative and interesting, check them out.
\nWell I guess that\u2019s a pretty good, all be it short explanation of probably the most versatile tool used in our industry. Hand trucks or two wheelers are used in almost every industry, I think it\u2019s kind of like a ladder, there\u2019s always a use for one even in our day to day lives. You\u2019ll find them in Office environments, mail rooms, retail stores, and even in professional buildings. It\u2019s the perfect tool to move a box or an item from point A to point B.
\nWhen moving a couple of file boxes from one cubicle to another I\u2019d probably agree, as long as one applies some common sense and is careful, there\u2019s not any special training required and the task can be accomplished by pretty much anyone. But, when you\u2019ll be moving 1500 cases throughout 20 different stops, working with it in a loaded trailer, coming down a trailer ramp and navigating through doorways and around the many obstacles encountered by todays delivery drivers and driver helpers a bit of training, practice and experience sure can make the task a bit easier and much Safer to accomplish.
\nI know some drivers that own and carry as many as 5 and 6 dollies or hand trucks with them each day. At large stops it\u2019s so efficient to load up several and run one after the other into the account or have a helper loading up one while you\u2019re running one. The typical set up would be like 3 regular hand trucks and 2 breakdowns. And I\u2019d hope all of them would be equipped with hand breaks.
\nAlthough breaks aren\u2019t really important when just moving a few boxes around the office, I think they should be mandatory when rolling 300# down a trailer ramp to a sidewalk or a curb. Even as an add on piece of equipment the investment is worth it.
\nRamps can be dangerous, think about it for a second. We\u2019re behind 250#, have it balanced going down a ramp with pneumatic or rubber composite tires on our two wheeler with about 3 inches on either side of our ramp guides or ledges with gravity pulling us at a pretty good clip and one of those...