A weigh scale pallet truck moves a pallet like any hand pallet truck and weighs the load as it lifts it, showing the figure on a display on the handle. For goods-in checks, despatch verification and stock control it removes a whole operation — the pallet never has to travel to a floor scale.
Most guides to these trucks stop at the specification. This one goes further, because the two questions buyers actually get wrong are whether the reading is legal for what they intend to do with it, and whether a weighing truck is the right spend at all against the alternatives at the same money. We have priced both from our own live range.
The short answer
- For internal check-weighing — goods-in, despatch, stock, waste — a high-accuracy truck is the right tool and the cheapest way to get a weight at the point of handling.
- If the weight will be the basis of a sale, a standard check-weighing truck is not legally sufficient. You need a scale verified and approved for trade. This is the single most expensive mistake available on this page.
- Before you commit, price it against a powered truck. In our range the two land within about £120 of each other, and which one earns its keep depends entirely on how far your pallets travel.
What we actually stock, and what it costs
We list one weighing truck: the GPC VULCAN Premium Weigh Scale Pallet Truck, in three configurations. These are the live prices, taken from the product listing:
| Model | Configuration | Price |
|---|---|---|
| PWS1157 | 1,150 mm forks | £1,589.88 |
| PWS1125 | 1,150 mm forks, 2,500 kg | £1,609.56 |
| PWS1270 | 1,220 mm forks | £1,653.72 |
⚠️ Capacity costs £19.68. Length costs £63.84.
Read those three prices as a ladder rather than three products and a genuinely useful pattern falls out:
- Going from the standard 1,150 mm truck to the 2,500 kg version costs £19.68 — 1.2%.
- Going from 1,150 mm to 1,220 mm forks costs £63.84 — 4.0%.
Fork length costs 3.2 times what extra capacity does. If you are undecided about capacity headroom, take it: £19.68 is inside the noise on a £1,600 purchase, and a truck that is never near its limit stays accurate and lasts longer. Fork length, by contrast, is not a headroom decision — it is a pallet-fit decision, and taking longer forks "just in case" costs three times as much and makes the truck harder to turn in a tight aisle. Measure your pallets; 1,150 mm suits a standard 1,200 mm GB pallet and a 1,200 × 800 mm Euro pallet entered from the long side.
What the specification states — and what it does not
From the published specification for the VULCAN Premium:
- Accuracy — ±0.1%, in 0.5 kg increments.
- Standard — conforms to EN 1757-2, CE marked and plated.
- Forks — 160 mm wide; 200 mm raised, 85 mm lowered.
- Wheels — 180 × 50 mm polyurethane steering wheels, 74 × 70 mm tandem load rollers.
- Protection — IP65, so it can work outdoors, on a lorry or tail-lift, and be washed down with water at normal pressure. The load cells in the forks carry the same protection level, which is the part that matters — a display rated IP65 over unprotected cells is not the same product.
- Power — rechargeable battery, 70–80 hours per charge, about 4 hours to recharge from the mains, cable included. It also shows lifting height electronically in the display.
The specification states a capacity for only one of the three configurations — the 2,500 kg PWS1125. It does not publish a capacity figure for the 1,150 mm or 1,220 mm standard models, and it does not state a warranty period, a lead time or a stock position for any of them. If capacity is a condition of your order — and on a weighing truck it usually is, because operating near the limit is what degrades a load cell — get the figure confirmed in writing at quotation rather than inferring it. We would rather say that than publish a number we cannot source.
⚠️ The legal point: check-weighing is not trade weighing
This is the part worth reading twice, because it is not a specification question and no amount of accuracy solves it.
A high-accuracy weighing truck is excellent for internal check-weighing: confirming what arrived against the delivery note, verifying a despatch weight against a carrier's rate card, tracking stock, weighing waste for a disposal contract. Nobody outside your business relies on the number.
The moment that reading becomes the basis of a sale — you are selling goods by weight, or the weight determines what the customer pays — UK weights and measures law requires an instrument that is verified and approved for trade use. That is a different specification with its own approval, marking and periodic verification regime. ±0.1% accuracy does not make an instrument legal for trade. Accuracy and legal approval are separate things, and a truck can have the first without the second.
The practical test: ask who acts on the number. If it is only you, a check-weighing truck is right. If it is a customer paying against it, or a regulator, you need approved-for-trade equipment and you should confirm the certification before you order — not after the first invoice is disputed.
The comparison nobody publishes: what else does £1,590 buy?
The usual framing is "weighing truck versus ordinary hand truck, is the weighing worth the premium?" We cannot answer it that way honestly, because we do not stock a plain hand pallet truck to compare it against. Every manual truck we list is a specialist: rough terrain, stainless and galvanised, extra heavy duty, reel handling, and this one. So here is the comparison that is actually available, at live prices:
| Truck | Type | Price |
|---|---|---|
| VULCAN reel handling | Manual, specialist | £1,302.66 |
| VULCAN lithium fully powered | Powered | £1,468.44 |
| VULCAN stainless steel | Manual, wash-down | £1,564.50 |
| VULCAN Premium weigh scale | Manual, weighing | £1,589.88 |
| VULCAN extra heavy duty | Manual | £1,799.34 |
| Rough terrain | Manual, outdoor | £1,855.26 |
| 2 tonne powered truck | Powered | £2,214.18 |
| Fully powered pallet truck | Powered | £2,381.76 |
⚠️ A fully powered lithium truck is £121.44 cheaper than the weighing truck
That is the number to sit with. £1,468.44 against £1,589.88. At effectively the same money you are choosing between two entirely different labour savings:
- The weighing truck removes a trip to the scale, on every pallet you need a weight for. The operator still pushes.
- The powered truck removes the pushing, on every pallet. The operator still walks to the scale.
Which wins is an arithmetic question about your site, not a preference. Count how many pallets a day genuinely need a weight, and how far the average pallet travels. A goods-in bay weighing forty pallets a day over a twenty-metre run buys the scale. A warehouse moving two hundred pallets a hundred metres and weighing six of them buys the power — and puts a £150 platform scale in the bay for the six. Our guide to manual versus electric pallet trucks works through the powered side of that decision, and the manual handling equipment guide covers designing the lift out of the job altogether.
Also worth noticing from the table: weighing is not a luxury add-on within this range. The weigh scale truck sits mid-price, below the extra heavy duty and rough terrain trucks and only £25.38 above the plain stainless one. If you had assumed load cells carried a large premium, they do not — the premium in this range is in the chassis, not the electronics.
EN 1757-1 or EN 1757-2 — and why the part number matters
EN 1757 is the pallet truck standard, but the part number tells you which kind of truck the manufacturer tested against. Across our own range the split is clean: EN 1757-2 is quoted on the hand-operated trucks — the weigh scale, the stainless and galvanised, the reel handling and the electric high-lift — and EN 1757-1 on the fully powered ones, including the lithium and premium powered trucks.
If a specification or tender asks for "EN 1757 compliance" without a part, ask which. A powered truck certified to part 1 does not evidence compliance with part 2, and quoting the bare standard on a tender return is the kind of ambiguity that gets a bid clarified at the worst moment. Note too that some listings in our own range quote no EN reference at all — the rough terrain, extra heavy duty and several powered trucks — so if the standard is a condition of purchase, confirm it per model rather than assuming it applies range-wide.
Using it so the readings stay worth having
Under PUWER 1998 the truck must be suitable for the job, maintained in efficient working order, and used by trained and competent operators. Beyond that, four habits keep the numbers reliable:
- Weigh on level ground. Load cells measure force through the forks; a cross-fall or a ramp puts part of the load somewhere else. A bay with a drainage gradient will read consistently wrong, which is worse than reading obviously wrong.
- Tare before every weigh. Pallet weights vary more than people expect — a wet timber pallet against a dry one is easily several kilograms — so subtracting a remembered figure is not the same as taring.
- Lift fully and let it settle. Reading during the pump stroke gives a number that is still moving.
- Have the cells checked periodically, and record it. Drift is gradual and invisible; the first sign is usually a dispute, by which point you cannot say when it started. Our pallet truck maintenance guide covers the mechanical side.
One more: keep it inside its rated capacity. Overloading a plain hand truck bends a fork, which you can see. Overloading a weighing truck degrades a load cell, which you cannot — the truck keeps working and starts lying. That is the real reason the £19.68 capacity upgrade above is good value.
Five questions before you order
- Who acts on the number? Only you → check-weighing truck. A paying customer → verified approved-for-trade equipment.
- How many pallets a day genuinely need a weight, and how far does the average pallet travel? That ratio decides weighing versus power at the same budget.
- What is your heaviest loaded pallet? Take the capacity headroom — it is £19.68 — and get the capacity of the standard models confirmed in writing, because the published data does not state it.
- Do your pallets fit? 160 mm fork width, 200 mm raised, 85 mm lowered, 1,150 or 1,220 mm long. Check the lowered height against your pallet's bottom-deck clearance, not just the fork length. Our guide to UK pallet sizes has the standard dimensions.
- Where does it work? Outdoors, on vehicles or in wash-down areas needs IP65 with the load cells rated too, not just the display.
Where to look next
Browse the weigh scale pallet trucks listing for the full specification, or the wider pallet trucks range. If the comparison above pushed you towards power, see powered pallet trucks and lithium battery pallet trucks; for the other manual specialists see manual pallet trucks, stainless and galvanised, rough terrain, reel handling and high lift. If the load needs to go up as well as along, look at pallet stackers and lift tables — our stacker versus pallet truck guide covers that fork in the road, and electric pallet trucks explained the powered range in depth.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is a weigh scale pallet truck?
The VULCAN Premium reads to ±0.1% of the load in 0.5 kg increments. On a 1,000 kg pallet that is ±1 kg, which is comfortably inside tolerance for goods-in, despatch and stock checks. Accuracy is only meaningful if you weigh on level ground and tare first.
Can I use a weigh scale pallet truck to sell goods by weight?
Not unless it is verified and approved for trade. UK weights and measures law treats selling by weight differently from internal checking, and a high-accuracy check-weighing truck does not meet that requirement however precise it is. Confirm the certification before the reading becomes the basis of an invoice.
How much does a weigh scale pallet truck cost?
Our VULCAN Premium runs £1,589.88 for the 1,150 mm model, £1,609.56 for the 2,500 kg version and £1,653.72 for the 1,220 mm forks. That places it mid-range among our manual trucks — below the extra heavy duty at £1,799.34 and the rough terrain at £1,855.26.
Is a weighing truck better value than a powered one?
They cost about the same and save different things. Our lithium fully powered truck is £1,468.44, which is £121.44 less than the weighing truck. The weighing truck removes trips to the scale; the powered truck removes the pushing. Count how many pallets need a weight and how far the average pallet travels, then decide.
Does a weigh scale pallet truck need mains power?
Only to recharge. The load cells and display run on a rechargeable battery giving 70–80 hours per charge, recharging in about four hours from the mains with the cable supplied, so the truck is not tied to a socket.
Can it be used outdoors or on a lorry?
Yes. The VULCAN Premium is IP65 rated, and the load cells in the forks carry the same protection level, so it can be used outside, on vehicles and cleaned with water at normal pressure.
What capacity do these trucks have?
The published specification states 2,500 kg for the PWS1125 configuration and does not state a capacity for the two standard models. If capacity matters to your order, ask us to confirm it in writing rather than assuming a figure.
Which EN standard applies?
EN 1757-2 covers hand-operated pallet trucks and is the part quoted on the VULCAN Premium weigh scale truck. EN 1757-1 covers powered trucks. If a tender asks for "EN 1757", establish which part is meant, and confirm the reference per model — several trucks in the wider market quote no EN reference at all.