A pallet truck is the cheapest way to move a loaded pallet across a floor, and for most UK buyers that means a hand pump truck costing £200 to £600. That is not what this range is. Every truck on this page is a GPC Industries unit built for a specific handling problem — corrosion, weighing, high-lift picking, reel handling, extra-long loads, rough ground or five-tonne pallets — and the cheapest of them is £1,302.66. If you want a general-purpose 2,500 kg pump truck for occasional lifts, a builders' merchant or a volume handling retailer will serve you better and we would rather say so here than after delivery.
What follows is the specification, the price and the honest limits of all fourteen trucks, taken from live product data. We publish the figures our supplier states and we say plainly which figures are not stated at all.
Price and capacity across the range
Twenty-six orderable configurations, £1,302.66 to £15,023.70, median £2,147.34. Capacities run from 1,000 kg to 5,000 kg.
| Truck |
Capacity |
Fork size |
Price |
|
VULCAN Reel Handling Pallet Truck (unpowered) |
Reel 800/1200 |
— |
£1,302.66 |
| VULCAN Fully Powered, Lithium Battery |
1,500–2,000 kg |
1150 × 540 |
£1,468.44–£1,627.86 |
|
VULCAN Galvanised & Stainless Steel (unpowered) |
— |
1150 × 540 |
£1,564.50 |
|
VULCAN Premium Weigh Scale (unpowered) |
up to 2,500 kg |
1150 / 1220 mm |
£1,589.88–£1,653.72 |
|
VULCAN Extra Heavy Duty (unpowered) |
— |
— |
£1,799.34 |
| Rough Terrain Pallet Truck |
— |
— |
£1,855.26 |
| Premium Fully Powered, Lithium Battery |
1,200–2,000 kg |
1150 × 540 |
£1,842.89–£2,590.30 |
| VULCAN Electric High Lift |
1,000–1,500 kg |
1170 × 540 or 680 |
£1,957.80–£2,201.46 |
| Fully Powered Pallet Truck |
1,500 kg |
1150 × 540 |
£2,381.76 |
| Extra Long Fully Powered |
— |
1500 / 1800 / 2000 × 550 |
£3,020.46–£3,553.80 |
| Premium Fully Powered |
2,000 kg |
1150 × 550 |
£3,689.34 |
| Fully Powered Reel Handling Truck |
1,000–2,000 kg |
960 / 1080 over forks |
£7,182.60–£7,948.32 |
| 5 Tonne Fully Powered |
5,000 kg |
1220 × 540 or 685 |
£14,845.92–£15,023.70 |
A dash means the figure is not stated in the product data. We have not estimated it.
The lithium truck is cheaper than the lead-acid one, not dearer
Lithium is normally sold as the premium upgrade. In this range the arithmetic runs the other way, and it is the single most useful thing on this page.
Same capacity, same fork size, and the lithium truck is £913.32 — 38% — cheaper. It is also the cheapest powered truck in the range by some distance. If you were going to buy a 1,500 kg powered pallet truck here, the lithium model is the default and the conventional one needs a reason.
The lithium range is also the only one whose battery handling is described: an open chassis so the battery lifts in and out, electric lift with manual lowering whose speed is set by the handle angle, a CURTIS non-polar speed controller, and auxiliary stabilising wheels on both sides. The Extra Long truck states a quick-swap lithium battery on a two-hour charge, which is the specification that matters if the truck has to work more than one shift.
Unpowered or powered — and what EN 1757 actually tells you
Five trucks here are unpowered and nine are powered. The useful signal is the standard each one is declared against, because EN 1757 is split by truck type:
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EN 1757-1 covers stacker and powered trucks — declared on the Premium Fully Powered truck and both lithium ranges.
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EN 1757-2 covers hand pallet trucks — declared on the Galvanised & Stainless, the VULCAN Reel Handling and the Premium Weigh Scale trucks.
One inconsistency is worth flagging rather than smoothing over: the Electric High Lift truck is declared against EN 1757-2, the hand-truck part, despite being electrically operated — it does have a manual lift and lower as well. If the declared standard matters to your compliance file, ask for the declaration of conformity rather than relying on a catalogue line, ours included. Four trucks in the range state no standard at all.
The choice between them is duty cycle, not weight. A truck lifted a few times a day does not need a motor at any price; a truck worked continuously across a shift is a manual-handling control as much as a handling machine. Our guides on manual versus electric pallet trucks and manual handling equipment under MHOR 1992 work through the avoid–assess–reduce hierarchy properly.
Fork geometry: the number most buyers get wrong
"540 mm forks" is not the width of a fork. It is the width over both forks — the outside dimension that has to enter the pallet. The individual fork on these trucks is 160 mm wide. Getting the two confused is how a truck arrives that will not enter the pallet.
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Width over forks: 540 mm (standard, suits UK and Euro pallets), 550 mm, 680 mm and 685 mm on the wide models.
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Fork length: 1150 mm standard; 1170 mm on the high-lift; 1220 mm on the weigh-scale and 5-tonne trucks; 1500, 1800 and 2000 mm on the Extra Long range for double pallets and extended loads.
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Lowered fork height 85 mm, raised 200 mm on the Galvanised and Weigh Scale trucks — the lowered figure is what has to clear the pallet deck.
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Wheels: 200 × 50 mm nylon steering wheels with 80 × 70 mm front rollers on the Galvanised range; 180 × 50 mm polyurethane steer with 74 × 70 mm tandem rollers on the Weigh Scale; 180 × 55 mm steer with 75 × 50 mm front rollers on the High Lift.
One published figure we will not repeat as fact: both lithium ranges state a fork width of 48 mm. Every other truck here states 160 mm, and 48 mm is not a credible pallet-fork width. We have queried it with the supplier. Treat the lithium fork width as unconfirmed and ask before ordering if the pallet entry is tight. If you are not certain which footprint your forks must suit, our guide to UK pallet sizes covers 1200 × 1000 mm and Euro 1200 × 800 mm, and two-way versus four-way entry.
Weigh-scale trucks: the only range here with a full instrument specification
The VULCAN Premium Weigh Scale truck weighs the pallet as you lift it, which removes a trip to the floor scale on every goods-in and despatch movement. Its published specification is unusually complete for this category:
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Accuracy ±0.1%, displayed in 0.5 kg increments, with electronic lift-height indication in the display.
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IP65 rated — usable outdoors or on a lorry, and washable under normal-pressure water, with the fork load cells separately protected.
-
Rechargeable battery giving 70–80 hours, recharging from the mains in about 4 hours, cable included.
- Three configurations: 1150 mm, 1220 mm, and a 2,500 kg model at 1150 mm — £1,589.88 to £1,653.72.
±0.1% is a percentage of the reading, not a fixed tolerance, so a 2,000 kg pallet is accurate to roughly ±2 kg. That is fine for despatch weights and freight classes. It is not a legal-for-trade approval and we do not claim one — if you are selling by weight, ask about verification separately. Our weigh-scale pallet truck guide covers the rest.
High-lift trucks, reel handling and the two extremes
The Electric High Lift truck raises the pallet to working height, so it doubles as an assembly or picking bench and takes the stooping out of order picking. It carries 1,000 or 1,500 kg in 540 or 680 mm fork widths, has both electric and manual lift and lower for precise positioning, includes a 12 V/60 Ah battery and charger with a 0.8 kW lift motor, and has adjustable stabilising bars that must come into operation before lifting.
Reel handling is where the range splits hardest. The VULCAN Reel Handling truck is unpowered at £1,302.66, with a reinforced A-frame and strengthened legs and a three-position lever giving fingertip control with the handle at any angle. The Fully Powered Reel Handling truck is £7,182.60 to £7,948.32 — five and a half times the price — and carries 1,000 kg on 750–1000 mm reels or 2,000 kg on 1200–1600 mm reels, with safety interlocks, operator protection and an external charger. The premium buys powered travel and reel diameter, not just a motor: if your reels are over a metre, the unpowered truck is not a smaller version of the powered one, it is a different capability.
At the top, the 5 Tonne Fully Powered truck at £14,845.92–£15,023.70 runs a 3 kW drive motor with electronic steering and polyurethane wheels, with an optional ride-on platform and protection arms. At five tonnes on a pedestrian truck the floor slab and the pedestrian segregation both need thinking about before the truck does.
UKCA, CE and made-to-order — read the marking before you order
The range does not carry one marking. Three trucks state UKCA marked and plated (5 Tonne, Extra Long, Fully Powered Reel Handling); two state CE marked and plated (VULCAN Reel Handling, Premium Weigh Scale); the rest state neither. For a GB site placed on the market now, UKCA is the relevant route — if the marking matters to your file, confirm it per model rather than per range.
Two of the fourteen are made to order, not stock: the Fully Powered Reel Handling truck is built to your specification, and the Extra Long truck is available in any length, width and capacity. Both need a conversation before an order, and neither has a published lead time.
What this product data does not tell you — and we will not invent
Across all fourteen trucks, the following appear zero times: a braking specification, a warranty period, a lead time, a stock status, and any reference to operator training. That is worth knowing in both directions.
It matters commercially, because warranty is actively used as a selling point at the budget end of this market — 10-year warranties are advertised on hand pallet trucks costing barely £200. We are not going to answer that with a number our own data does not contain. If warranty is a deciding factor, ask us for it in writing before ordering, and ask a competitor which document their figure comes from.
It matters practically too. A pallet truck's brake, or absence of one, decides what happens on a slope or a dock plate. None of these fourteen states one. Ask.
Do you need a licence to use a pallet truck?
No — there is no legal licence for a pallet truck in the UK, hand or pedestrian electric, and no card you are required to hold. What the law does require is different and often missed: under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) an employer must ensure anyone using work equipment has received adequate training, and under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 the lift has to be assessed. On a powered truck that training should cover braking distance, load stability, ramp and dock behaviour and pedestrian segregation. Third-party accreditation exists and is widely used, but it is a recognised standard, not a statutory licence.
What we do not sell, and where to go instead
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Hire. We sell trucks outright. We do not hire them, and short-term hire is often the right answer for a one-off project.
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General-purpose hand pump trucks at £200–£600. There is no budget tier in this range — the floor is £1,302.66. A trade counter or a volume handling retailer is the right route.
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Counterbalance forklifts. A pallet truck is not a forklift: it lifts a pallet clear of the floor to move it, it does not stack. If you need to place pallets into racking, see stackers and our guide to stacker versus pallet truck.
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Second-hand or ex-demo trucks. Everything here is new.
Browse by type
What goes with a pallet truck
A truck moves the pallet; something else has to receive it. Pair yours with pallet racking or the wider racking & shelving range, and if pallets have to leave the floor, with stackers — semi-electric, powered or straddle. For loading and unloading, see loading bay & dock equipment, dockboards and dockplates and container access ramps — the ramp gradient and the dockplate rating both constrain what a loaded truck can safely cross. For non-palletised moves see platform trucks and trolleys and distribution trucks; for lifting rather than travelling, lifters & loaders and scissor lift tables; and for heavy wheeled loads without pallets, electric tugs.
Pallet truck buying guides
Not sure which truck fits the job? Tell us the pallet, the load, the surface and how often it moves, and we will specify it — or tell you that you do not need what is on this page.
GPC Industries TT1200Y
