Work Platforms, Platform Steps & Warehouse Steps

Mobile work platforms, platform steps, warehouse steps and guard-railed safety platforms — the full range of steps and platforms for reaching high racking, working at bench height for hours, or loading a trailer. We supply the Klime-Ezee and GPC Climb-It lines, from a £289 narrow-aisle mobile step up to a 6,000 mm cantilever height-adjustable platform, plus podium steps, folding telescopic step platform units, aluminium towers and dock-level access platforms.

The two specifications that actually decide this purchase

Almost every buyer starts with height and tread count. Those matter, but they are rarely what goes wrong. Two published figures decide whether the unit gets used or quietly abandoned in a corner — and neither is quoted on most category pages.

1. Safe working load: 150 kg and 300 kg are different products

Our range splits cleanly in two. The GPC Climb-It UK Warehouse Steps and the Climb-It single and inline platforms are rated 150 kg. The whole Klime-Ezee mobile step range — Industrial, Light-Weight, Extra-Wide, Knock-Down, Narrow Aisle Pro — and the Climb-It Easy Slope work platforms are rated 300 kg SWL.

That is not a durability grade, it is a capacity limit, and it answers a question people ask too late: can two people be on the platform at once? On a 150 kg unit, no — that figure is one operator plus what they are carrying, and a picker plus a full tote can get close to it. The Easy Slope work platform data states plainly that its 300 kg rating holds two people on the platform at one time. If the job is two-handed assembly, a two-person lift onto a mezzanine edge, or one person plus a heavy component, you need the 300 kg rating and no amount of extra treads substitutes for it.

2. Angle of ascent: 60° versus 50° decides how you come down

The Klime-Ezee ranges climb at 60°. The Climb-It Easy Slope work platforms climb at 50°, and the manufacturer's own note explains why that is worth paying for: the shallower slope lets the operator turn around and descend facing forwards. On a 60° unit you come down the way you would come down a loft ladder — facing the treads, one hand on the rail, which is fine empty and awkward with a box.

So the rule is simple and nobody publishes it: if the operator comes down carrying something, buy the 50° easy-slope platform. If they come down empty-handed — picking small items into a tote left on the platform, reading a meter, changing a label — 60° is fine and takes up far less floor.

Choosing between mobile steps, work platforms and podiums

Three questions settle it: how high, how long will they stand there, and how often does the unit move?

Mobile safety steps / warehouse steps — a wheeled, self-supporting staircase with a top platform and handrails. The right answer for frequent short visits to height: picking from racking, stock checks, label runs. Our mobile safety steps and warehouse safety steps cover 2 to 15 treads.
Work platforms and safety platforms — a low, stable, guard-railed standing area at a fixed height for tasks measured in hours rather than seconds: assembly, inspection, machine tending, marshalling. Both hands free, no over-reaching from a rung. The Climb-It single platform is 800 × 800 mm with a non-slip chequer-plate surface and adjustable feet that take up ±20 mm of uneven floor, and the modular units bolt together into a larger working area — the honest reason to choose a platform over steps when the job is a workstation, not a climb.
Podium steps — a fully enclosed guard-railed cage for longer static work at height. Our GPC podium steps are certified to PAS 250, have a 1,000 mm all-round guardrail, a 670 × 670 mm platform, saloon gates, fold in seconds and fit through a standard doorway. Full comparison in our mobile safety steps vs podium steps guide.
Folding telescopic platform steps — collapse flat for storage and transport where a permanent unit has nowhere to live. See folding & telescopic steps, or our hop-up & low-level work platforms guide for the bench-height end of the range.

Heavy duty mobile steps: the Klime-Ezee range compared

All five Klime-Ezee ranges are fully welded steel, rated 300 kg SWL, climb at 60° and are supplied fully assembled (except Knock-Down). What separates them is tread width and footprint — the specification that decides comfort at height and whether the unit fits the aisle.

Range	Tread width	Platform	Platform heights	From
Narrow Aisle Pro	450 mm	450 × 400 mm, toe plates 3 sides	500–2,000 mm	£289
Light-Weight (19 mm tube)	550 mm	550 × 400 mm	500–1,500 mm	£299
Industrial (25 mm tube)	550 mm	550 × 400 mm	750–3,750 mm	£359
Extra-Wide	700 mm	700 × 400 mm	500–3,750 mm	£419
Knock-Down (flat-packed)	550 mm	550 × 400 mm	1,250–3,750 mm	£549

Two points worth making plainly. Light-Weight and Industrial are the same design in different tube — 19 mm versus 25 mm — at the same 300 kg SWL, so the Light-Weight is not a downgrade in capacity, it is a lighter unit that tops out at a 1,500 mm platform. And tread width is the comfort spec on tall units: 450 mm is fine at a 1,000 mm platform and unpleasant at 3,000 mm, which is exactly why the Extra-Wide range exists at 700 mm. Working heights reach 5,500 mm on the taller models. Tread finish is punched metal, PVC or rubber; standard colour is blue, with red, yellow, green, grey and orange to order.

If doorways, corridors or low beams make a fully assembled unit impossible to get into the building, the Knock-Down range is the same 300 kg specification supplied flat-packed and bolted together on site.

Brakes and castors: three mechanisms, and they are not interchangeable

Every mobile unit has to become static before someone climbs it. How it does that is a real choice and it is usually buried in the small print.

Weight-reactive (spring-loaded) castors — the Climb-It Weight Reactive Safety Steps ride on four spring-loaded castors that retract under body weight so the unit grounds itself on large feet. Nothing to remember, nothing to forget. Certified to EN 131 Professional, fully enclosed platform with spring gates, 600 × 610 mm non-slip platform with deep kick boards, and it turns in its own circle. This is the unit to buy where a lot of different people use the steps.
Handlock mechanism — on the Climb-It UK Warehouse Steps and Easy Slope work platforms, a lever engages or disengages the front castors so the unit is deliberately mobile or deliberately static. Positive and durable, but it depends on the operator using it.
Plunger castors or a central braking system — the Klime-Ezee ranges use one or the other depending on model, with the Extra-Wide range using a central or side handle lever operating the front castors.

The honest guidance: where the steps are shared across a shift, buy weight-reactive. Where one team owns the unit and knows it, a handlock or braked castor is perfectly safe and usually cheaper.

Warehouse steps, warehouse ladders and stairs

The GPC Climb-It UK Warehouse Steps run 3 to 15 treads with 200 mm deep × 610 mm wide punched steel treads and a 600 × 610 mm platform, box-section base, kick board and a 150 kg load capacity — the classic warehouse ladder with a platform, priced from around £968. For permanent high-level access, the Klime-Ezee KE 300 kg industrial stairs are the fixed answer where a mobile unit is being asked to do a staircase's job.

A practical warning nobody prints on a category page: tall steps are heavy and the manufacturer publishes what it takes to get them off the lorry. On the Climb-It UK Warehouse Steps that is 2 people for 3–7 treads, 3 people for 8–11, and a forklift or 4 people for 12–15. On the Easy Slope work platforms it is 4 people for 3–5 treads and a forklift for 6–10. Check you have the labour or the truck on delivery day before you order the tall unit — this is the single most common avoidable problem with this category. For a deeper walkthrough of sizing, see our warehouse steps buying guide.

Work platforms, easy-slope platforms and height-adjustable units

The Climb-It UK Easy Slope work platforms are the workhorse of the platform range: 1,200 mm or 1,800 mm platforms, punched steel treads at 730 × 195 mm, lift-out handrails on three sides so you can get at the work, a box-section base, the 50° ascent and a 300 kg capacity. Available as a single platform or two platforms inline where a job runs along a length — a machine, a conveyor, a vehicle side.

At the top of the range, the Climb-It Cantilever Height Adjustable Platforms raise and lower on a pulley system with reinforced stabilisers, covering 2,480–3,180 mm, 3,050–4,050 mm and 4,000–6,000 mm, certified to EN 131 Professional. These are made to order and cannot be returned once ordered, so specify carefully — talk to us before committing. For static bench-height work the 800 × 800 mm modular platforms at 500, 750 and 1,000 mm heights, with two or three handrails, bolt together into whatever shape the job needs.

Where the work is higher or longer, mobile aluminium towers — the Climb-It Flexi, Ultra, UniPro and Extenda ranges — give a guard-railed platform that is still light enough to reposition by hand. Browse the full Climb-It range or the Klime-Ezee range.

Loading bay and vehicle access platforms

Klime-Ezee truck dock platforms are mobile lorry access steps with a full-width platform at trailer height, and Klime-Ezee access platforms and roller-bed platforms bridge vehicle, dock and floor. See truck dock platforms and roller bed platforms. Where the load itself has to get in or out of a grounded container, that is a different product — see container access ramps. GPC Apollo powered platform trucks move heavy or awkward loads across site without carrying; for picking at floor level see trucks & trolleys and our picking trolleys guide.

Three things we do not do, said plainly

We sell, we do not hire. "Platform steps hire" and "warehouse steps hire" are common searches and hire is genuinely the better answer for a one-off fortnight's project work — a hire company will beat us on that job. Our range is priced for equipment that stays on site and is used every week.
We are not a ladder supplier. The only ladder we stock is the GPC Premium Fibreglass 3-Way Combination Ladder, for electrical and mixed-use work where a non-conductive ladder is required. If what you need is a step ladder or an extension ladder, buy from a ladder specialist. A platform ladder and a mobile work platform are different tools: a platform ladder is a leaning or A-frame ladder with a standing plate; our units are self-supporting, wheeled, guard-railed and rated by SWL rather than by ladder class.
We do not deal in used or refurbished steps. If you are buying second-hand privately, check the welds at the tread-to-stringer joints, that every castor and brake still operates, that the handrails are not bent out of plane, and that the unit still carries its rating label — an unlabelled step cannot be shown to be fit for the task under PUWER.

Safety, standards and inspection

Work at height in UK workplaces is governed by the Work at Height Regulations 2005, which require you to avoid work at height where you reasonably can, and to use equipment that prevents a fall where you cannot — which is exactly what a guard-railed platform does and a ladder does not. The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) require the equipment to be suitable for the task, maintained, and inspected. Relevant product standards here are EN 131 Professional (Climb-It Weight Reactive and Cantilever platforms) and PAS 250 (podium steps).

In practice, inspection means a documented visual check on a set interval: treads and platform clean and non-slip, kick boards intact, handrails secure, castors and brakes operating, welds sound, feet flat on the floor. Steel units are powder coated — see our guide to finishes if the unit lives outside or in a wash-down area. If the steps serve racking, the racking has its own inspection duty — see our racking inspection guide.

Sizing it: platform height versus working height

Manufacturers quote both and they are not the same number. Platform height is where your feet are. Working height is the height you can comfortably reach from it — roughly platform height plus about 1.8 m for an average adult. So a 3,750 mm platform gives a working height around 5,500 mm, which is what the Klime-Ezee data states.

Size from the shelf you actually need to reach, not the top of the rack — if the top beam is only accessed at stock-take, a step sized for the everyday pick level and a separate plan for the top beam is safer and cheaper than a permanently oversized unit. Match the equipment to the racking layout: see our pallet racking & industrial shelving and heavy duty shelving ranges, or the longspan shelving guide. Not sure which model fits your aisle widths and beam levels? Send us the layout and we will spec it against the range.