Goods Lifts

Goods lifts, or freight lifts as they can be known in some circles are, essentially, exactly what they sound like; they are lifts which, rather than being used to transport passengers from location to location are instead used to transport goods. A goods lift isn’t as flexible as where it can carry it’s load as say a scissor lift or a forklift might well be but, in the right sort of situation, a goods lift can really help a business.

You will tend to find goods lifts in warehouses and in some of the larger department stores; in the latter they can also sometimes double up as passenger lifts as well although this is a situation, for health and safety reasons, which should probably be avoided at all costs. Obviously, as they are only carrying goods and maybe one employee at a time, they don’t need to be as aesthetically pleasing as passenger lifts but they do need to work just as efficiently and they also need to be able to carry weights which are just as heavy if not more so- some of the bigger goods lifts can carry weights which far exceed those of the average passenger lift.

Goods lifts are vital to the smooth running of any warehouse or large shop. In shops the stock will generally be kept upstairs and, if a major restocking of a certain floor needs to take place then less staff will be needed, and thus less wages will have to be paid and the more money will be saved! It really is that simple folks. In a warehouse type situation then goods lifts can allow large numbers of boxes or products to be transported from the warehouse floor down or up to the loading bay where they can be put into lorries.

Similarly in factories, large amounts of freight can be moved between floors and levels of the factory when using a goods lift. It would take a lot of people a lot of time and effort to move the amounts which can be much more easily moved with a goods lift and thus they do make good sense in an efficiency way but you also need to consider whether they are really suitable for your business.

As was hinted at before, lifts like scissor lifts or forklifts provide much more freedom and choice over where a product can be transported from and where it can be taken to; with a lift there are generally only two options- up or down. This is fine if the layout of your business matches that but, if it doesn’t, if it’s stretched over one huge aircraft-hanger-esque warehouse for example, then a goods lift really isn’t going to solve any of your problems.

There are also the structural problems to consider as well; if you are fitting a large goods lift then you need to be sure that your building can handle the structural trauma this will bring and whether or not your business can cope with the disruption which will occur whilst the lift is being fitted.  Speaking of disruption, servicing your goods lift is also something which you need to consider very carefully.

If you come to rely on your goods lift then your company may well ground to a halt if something were to happen to it- specific maintenance plans are unique to each lift and each situation so sit down with your supplier, or indeed your chosen maintenance company and thrash out a ruthless schedule for checking that everything continues working properly; as a goods lift does not have the same kind of populated life that a passenger lift has, niggling problems or minor faults may go unnoticed for a long time which will only lead to bigger problems further down the line. Thus, the only solution is to have it checked regularly and try to keep everything running smoothly so that your business can run smoothly as well; getting a goods lift can be a huge financial investment and thus you need to do all the research which it is possible to do before you jump into making a decision.

Read the articles which follow this introduction and then read the rest of the website too, you may well find out that there is another type of lift which is much more suited to your needs and thus you should be concentrating on that.

The only way to find out these things though is to read and do research, talk to companies who are in a similar line of work to you and see how they have solved their lift problems- you may find that there is a cheaper solution which you haven’t even considered! So, get your goods in order- it will only be good for the long term health of your enterprise.

Goods Lift Information Guide: