The 9 Most Common Forklift Types, Classifications & Uses

Forklifts are used in a variety of environments ranging from the confines of a small warehouse to large construction fields and even lumberjack yards.

The 9 most common types of forklifts with their uses are shared below:

1. Counterbalance Forklift – This common forklift has forks out at the front and counterbalancing weights at the back. Counterbalance forklifts do not have extending arms as they can be directly driven to the loads. These are most commonly used in situations where circular maneuvering is required.

2. Pallet Jack – Pallet jacks trade-off their size and load-carrying capacity to get the ability to lift small loads and fit into the tightest quarters. These are generally powered with a battery or manually.

3. Walkie Stacker – Unlike other forklifts, these machines do not have operator cabs. Instead, the operator has to stand behind the machine and steer it manually using an attached handle. The Walkie stacker also lacks maneuverability, power, and speed, but can reach much higher off the ground than the pallet jack, and hence are used where pallets need to be taken to higher heights which is not possible with a pallet jack.

4. Order Picker – A type of the Walkie stacker, order pickers can reach heights of up to 32 feet and are designed to lift operators to warehouse racks, instead of the traditional lifting of loads. These are found in customer order warehouses and storage facilities where operators can be lifted up to the warehouse racks to bring down individual units of inventory rather than lifting entire pallets.