Picking the Best Warehouse Picking Cart for Your Operation

Warehouse picking carts can be integrated into any warehouse or backroom operation to serve as a faster method for picking, stocking, or transporting inventory. They are also a great way to utilize unused space and make maneuvering in confined spaces, like aisles, easier.

Important Factors to Assess When Selecting A Warehouse Picking Cart

When looking to utilize carts in your operation, you need to evaluate your inventory characteristics and picking processes. Analyzing these will help determine what type of cart will be best for your application.

What are the processes that could be more efficient?

To begin, observe each step in your distribution process. This can include asking staff involved in each step what they experience as challenges. It’s important to observe each step in your distribution process, because different picking carts may be ideal for different parts of the process.

This assessment will help you determine where bottlenecks are, which steps in the process are too manual, which steps are causing employees strain, and which steps are causing safety concerns. Once you understand these inefficiencies, it will become clearer what type of picking cart you need.

What items are you storing? 

It’s very important that your warehouse picking carts can adequately house and transport your products. For example, most shelf picking carts have a capacity between 1,200 lbs. and 3,600 lbs. and, depending on the number of shelves, have an average clearance between 11” and 17”. It’s important to keep this in mind while searching for a picking cart if your products are heavier and/or larger.

If you require carts to transport multiple SKUs at once, consider ones with multiple shelf levels. These are often used in retail and food and beverage operations. This will add more storage density per cart and provide for faster product accessibility. Examples of common types of picking carts can be found later in this article.

How do you want to store and pick these items?

In addition to having the ability to transport your items, carts must also provide the proper accessibility for your application. This is an important element to consider because it can speed up the rate of which things are picked and shipped.

For example, open frame picking carts allow access to products from all four sides. This option provides the best product accessibility and can benefit operations with high product circulation. Two-sided carts allow access from both long sides of the cart. Three-sided carts only allow products to enter and exit from one side, providing the least accessibility but safeguards inventory to prevent damage or spillage.

Start With the Right Foundation: Casters

Choosing the right caster is an important part of choosing a picking cart for a warehouse. The right caster makes a picking cart safer, easier to use, more efficient, and more durable. Conversely, the wrong caster can slow down operations, increase worker injuries, and damage floors.

Casters are typically either bolted onto the cart or welded onto the cart. It’s recommended to choose bolted on casters for most applications, since this option makes replacing casters easier.

Standard carts often come with four wheels: two rigid in the back and two swivel in the front. This combination allows the cart to remain stable while providing easy turning ability. For heavy-duty applications, it’s often recommended to have six casters mounted to the cart: two in the front, two in the middle, and two in the back.

Most picking carts include several caster options to choose from. Which is best will depend on the required load capacity, the type of flooring the cart will be rolling on, what elements will come in contact with them (for example, chemicals), and other specialty requirements, such as how quiet the cart must be. Here are several caster options:

Polyurethane casters

• A type of flexible plastic
• Non-marking
• Quiet
• Resistant to chemicals and liquids
• Tend to wear out quickly
• Flexible material provides a cushioning effect, ideal for transporting fragile materials

Phenolic casters

• A hard resin material
• Cost effective option when used for the right application
• Tends to be a louder option
• Offers high load capacity
• Chemical resistant
• Can withstand liquids for a short time, but will become compromised with frequent contact with liquids
• Somewhat durable, but becomes frail if chipped or punctured

Steel casters

• Used to handle heavy loads.
• Will last a long time but can mark up or cause grooves in flooring
• Not recommended on tile or ceramic finished flooring

Nylon casters

• A durable synthetic polymer
• Does not leave marks on floor
• Highly resistant to chemicals and liquids
• Nonporous and easy to clean, therefore recommended for hospitals and food distribution
• Ideal for heavy loads, does not easily bend or break with wear and tear

Rubber casters

• Affordable option
• Quiet
• Can be solid for durability or air-filled for better shock absorption
• Ideal for light-duty and medium-duty applications
• Not as durable as other options

Pick Cart Construction

Another important factor to assess when choosing the right picking cart for your operation is the types of cart materials available. Each type offers different characteristics that will affect how it performs. The most prominent materials that carts are constructed of include:

Steel

• Strength: High strength. Can handle heavy loads.
• Durability: High durability. Will perform well in industrial environments. Often powder coat painted for a longer lasting product.

Stainless steel

• Strength: Can handle heavy loads.
• Durability: Like steel, stainless steel is highly durable, with the added benefit of being impervious to rust, chemicals, and moisture. Because of this, stainless steel carts are ideal for environments where cleanliness is of high importance, such as pharmaceuticals and food.

Aluminum

• Strength: Not as strong as steel but can be constructed to effectively handle medium to heavy loads. It is also not as heavy as steel, making aluminum carts easier for employees to maneuver.
• Durability: While not as durable as steel, this is a durable option that is typically more cost effective than steel. It will withstand harsh environments and is rust and corrosion resistant, making it effective in environments where moisture is present.

Wire mesh

• Strength: A lightweight option that can handle light to medium loads. Mostly ideal for picking operations that require high visibility, air circulation, and light circulation.
• Durability: The steel construction of these typically offers decent durability against wear and tear when used in the right setting, such as retail replenishment and other light-duty picking applications. However, because they are lightweight, they are typically not suitable for harsh industrial environments, as they will accumulate wear and tear quickly.

Plastic

• Strength: Ideal for lightweight items, cannot handle very heavy loads.
• Durability: The high-density polyethylene or polypropylene that plastic carts are often made of will last in harsh environments. It is resistant to chemicals and liquids and will not rust, chip, or dent.

Common Types of Warehouse Picking Carts

Shelf Carts

Shelf carts resemble mobile shelving units. They include multiple shelves for storing boxes, totes, or smaller items.

Shelf carts are ideal for operations that can benefit from picking multiple orders simultaneously. Because these carts can hold multiple items across shelves, they allow pickers to pick multiple orders in a single trip. Often, pickers will assign each shelf or tote to a different order. This reduces pick and ship times by reducing walking time and minimizing sorting at the packing station.

Shelf carts are highly versatile, with options that will fit almost any picking operation. These options include:

• Number of shelves
• Overall, height, width, and depth
• Between shelf distance
• Shelf lips: lips up for retention, lips down for flush
• Cart material: wire mesh, aluminum, stainless steel, plastic
• Handle type and placement
• Accessories such as dividers and bins
• Flat or slanted (gravity) shelves
• Can be purchased with walls and lockable door to make it a security cart

Ladder Carts

Ladder carts are an all-in-one picking solution for operations that store products on both low and high shelves. They provide the picking benefits of a shelf cart with the added benefit of being able to easily pick from higher shelves without strain.

Ladder carts can decrease pick times, since pickers don’t need to take time to retrieve a ladder to pick. Ladder carts also increase the safety of employees and products by lessening the likelihood of products falling from the top shelves onto the employee while they are reaching to pick them.

Ladder carts have options to suit any operation, whether it be picking from standard aisle, very narrow aisles (VNA), and even on catwalk levels in multi-level rack systems. Options include:

• Number of shelves
• Overall, height, width, and depth
• Between shelf distance
• Ladder tread styles: smooth, abrasive, serrated
• Accessories such as bumpers to avoid damage when hitting racking or other objects
• Back panels to retain products during movement

Platform Carts

The low profile and wide platform construction of platform trucks make them ideal for transporting heavy or bulky items. They can be fitted with heavy-duty casters for very heavy loads, typically up to 4,000 lbs. Customization options for platform carts include:

• Overall, height, width, and depth
• Platform material: aluminum, stainless steel, plastic, wood
• Handle type and placement
• Shelf lips: lips up for retention, lips down for flush
• Accessories such as wire mesh side panels
• Features such as being collapsable
• Adding solid steel side panels to make it a deep box cart

U-Boats

U-boats have long, narrow platforms with tall rails on either side, giving it a “U” shape. Their narrow and long platform makes them ideal for transporting cartons. Typical widths range from 16” to 20”, allowing them to easily navigate very narrow aisles, which typically range from 6’ to 6’-6”. This narrow profile also makes them ideal for retail backrooms where space is limited. Options include:

• Stacking or nesting capability
• Platform material: aluminum, stainless steel, plastic
• Integrated step ladder
• Collapsable or removable handles
• Accessories include dividers, brakes, and wire shelves

Carts with Dividers or Bins

Carts fitted with dividers or bins increase accuracy and reduce picking errors by providing designated places to house individual orders or SKUs on the same cart. These carts are often used for high throughput operations, especially those that are picking and packing many small orders at once, which is often the case for ecommerce operations as well as retail store replenishment. They help maintain high throughput by allowing space for pickers to pick multiple orders in one run. This is often the case with batch or zone picking.

These carts are highly customizable and scalable, with many options that can be altered at any time to accommodate current needs. For example, bins can be added or taken away, bin colors can be switched out as indicators for pickers, and shelves can often be added or removed. Other options include:

• Overall, height, width, and depth
• Cart material: wire mesh, aluminum, stainless steel, plastic
• Number and color(s) of bins
• Number of dividers per shelf
• Accessories such as label holders
• Shelves to hold trays

Automated Carts

Warehouses are increasingly adding automation to their operation, and picking carts have become an important part of automating processes. Options for automated picking carts range from a simple built-in semi-automated aid to a sophisticated autonomous cart solution. Examples of automated carts include:

• Pick-to-light carts: Lights are installed at each bin to guide pickers where to place items. Typically, the pick-to-light system activates once the operator scans the order identifier or SKU barcode, at which point the lighted display on the correct bin on the cart will indicate to the operator where to place the item and how many to place.
• Carts with built-in scales: While this is a simple automated cart solution, it can be extremely effective for decreasing the occurrence of mis-picks. Each shelf of the cart has an integrated scale that verify the weight of items placed inside. It can then detect mis-picks by comparing actual weight to expected SKU weight from the WMS.
• Voice directed carts: Workers wear a headset connected to the cart’s system. The cart provides voice instructions (e.g., “put box size A in position 1, box size C in position 2, and box size D in position 3 on the cart.”). The operator will confirm once completed. Voice picking carts save valuable time per pick, because the operator does not have to look down at a paper or RF transmitter to reference their next steps.
• Semi-autonomous carts: Often referred to as “follow me carts”, the cart automatically follows the worker as they move through aisles. This speeds up processes by allowing pickers to walk their pick path without having to push around the cart.
• Autonomous carts: These are carts created with robotics. Workers pick items and place them on the robot/cart, which then autonomously drives to its destination in the next step of the distribution process, such as the packing or shipping area.

Examples of Picking Carts for Common Distribution Concerns

Because there are so many carts to choose from, we’ve put together some examples of common picking issues and carts that are often used to alleviate those issues.

Concern: Pickers cannot quickly and clearly see into boxes on cart

• Consider: Carts with slanted shelves
• How this helps: Because these carts have slanted shelves, pickers can clearly see into the boxes on every shelf of the cart. This eliminates employee error due to lack of visibility. Furthermore, employees can pick items faster because they no longer need to bend down and examine the boxes to view where each pick goes. View this case study to learn how this type of cart helped improve the picking process for a beauty and personal care products distributor.

Concern: Wasted time disposing of or retrieving packing materials

• Consider: Box and supply transfer carts
• How this helps: These carts are a convenient way to transport packing materials anywhere needed. These carts include integrated wire partitions that provide barriers to organize packing materials such as boxes of various sizes. Additionally, these carts provide a convenient place to consolidate boxes and materials that need to be disposed of.

Concern: Keeping products with expiration dates in order on picking carts

• Consider: Gravity cart with rollers
• How this helps: These carts are a first-in, first-out (FIFO) solution for picking items with expiration dates due to their slanted shelves fitted with rollers. This is often seen in food and pharmaceutical distribution. With these carts, items are placed in the designated loading side of the cart. They then glide to the front, picking side of the cart via gravity. Once the front item is picked, the next item rolls forward to the front picking position.

Concern: Wasted time walking far distances with carts or need to move multiple loads of merchandise at once.

• Consider: Tugger carts
• How this helps: Tugger carts include a motorized tugger that a cart with a specialized attachment can hook onto and be pulled. The motorized tugger is often a vehicle that employees can drive, but options are also available that allow employees to guide the tugger by pulling it. Tugger carts can be chained together to form a train of carts. This makes transporting heavy and numerous loads simultaneously much faster and easier.

Concern: Need to slide products from carts onto tables or conveyors

• Consider: Carts with a tilt table
• How this helps: These types of carts use power to lift and move products from horizontal position to vertical, and vice versa. This makes moving these items safer and quicker than manually moving them.

The Future of Picking Carts in Warehouses: Does Automation Make Them Obsolete?

The short answer is no, picking carts in warehouses is not something that is going away soon. Pick carts have evolved to work with automated systems and are an integral part of a successful automated operation. Often, picking carts aid in processes between automated system processes, such as getting products to and from an automated system or providing support in the packing area.

In addition to working alongside automated systems, picking carts themselves are being integrated with automation capabilities. As described in the previous section, these include carts fitted with pick-to-light capabilities, voice directed capabilities, and carts that are robotically driven.

Do You Need Efficient Picking Carts for Your Operation?

REB provides both standard and customized warehouse picking carts for companies across the US. Our well-established manufacturer relationships allow us to source the right cart for your operation. We offer many types of carts, which can be viewed in our Material Handling Products Brochure.

Unsure if you’re using the ideal picking cart for your operation? Our experts can assess your needs to identify which cart will fit you best. With so many options out there, our knowledge can help avoid the headache of searching through them and ensure you end up with the right one for your operation.

Fill out the ‘Submit Your Inquiry’ Form or call (800) 252-5955 to get in touch with our industry experts, who can answer questions you have about picking carts and how to design them to best fit your inventory.