Sack Truck

The sack truck is used in many businesses. It can be used in warehouse, agricultural settings, office settings, all sorts. And there is different types. This one here is solid metal framework. This has solid tyres on. Some others have a pneumatic tyre. So you need to choose which one is going to be best for the terrain that you're working with. Inside the warehouse setting here, its solid tyres are okay. But if you are more outside, the pneumatic ones are going to be better. There are also other types of sack truck and these are more of a lightweight one which fold flat. These are great if you want to move stuff out to your car and you do not want to put the truck in the car just so you can move boxes in and out of an office or in a different room that you want to move stuff.

Now, with the trucks themselves, you need to do a good visual inspection before you are going to be using it. So the first thing to do is make sure that this is the right truck for the job, that you have got the permission to use it from the employer and it is what is recommended and there is no issues with the physical loads. So you need to make sure the truck is okay for the load you are moving. An example of that could be for moving small boxes, this would be fine, but other sack trucks have a larger plate on the bottom which gives more area on the front to actually put stuff on. Others have a higher section up here to get multiple stack boxes. A basic visual inspection will be starting at the top working way down. You are looking at the handles, making sure they are not loose, because if you are using the truck, one of these handles came loose, you could fall over and hurt yourself.

Just look through to make sure there is no excessive wear, no breaks, none of the welds are damaged on them at all. Look through at the plate to the bottom, make sure it is fixed, no excessive rust, no damage on there at all. If there is any labels on it, manufacturers warning labels, check those to make sure that you are not overloading the truck, is within the manufacturers specifications. And then go through to the main axle section. Again, make sure there is no corrosion. If it does need to be lubricated, make sure it is lubricated. Some have grease nipples on them, others do not, this one does not. And then look through to the actual tyre itself, so if it is a pneumatic tyre, make sure there is enough air in it, [0:02:03.0] ____ set at the correct pressure. If it is a solid rubber tyre, these do get damaged as well. Sometimes they get cracks in them. Sometimes the temperature can affect them. So you are looking around the actual tyre to make sure there is no excessive damage on it, the tyre is on the brims correctly and there is not any damage within the tread that could cause it to crack or break.

Final thing worth checking is make sure that the pins in the end are secure. This particular one, where when they come to you and often when you buy them, the wheels are detached to put the wheels on and put the pins in. So just make sure that the pin is secure on the end, it has not broken and the ends are folded round so there is no chance of the wheel coming off. So once you have done the main inspection, then you are ready to use the truck. The first thing to do is plan what you are going to be doing. So if you are moving a box from A to B, look at the route you are going over. Are there any slopes? Is it on even ground? Are there any rubbish on the floor? Maybe there is lots of stones and gravel or rubbish or plastic lying around that could get caught around the wheels so you need to clear that out of the way first. So once you have actually done a very mini risk assessment on what you are actually be doing, look at the load, make sure it is the right load for the truck.

So when you are, for example, just moving a box, push the... Do not just shove the truck underneath the box. If you do that, you are gonna damage the cardboard. When you are actually... Before you actually move any of the loads, just make sure that the box is okay, in a sense that if the box is very wet, maybe when you start moving it, the box would collapse. So have a good look around the load you are moving. Also if there is a heavy side and a light side, keep the heavy side towards the back of the truck. Otherwise, when you start moving it, you can, again, cause it to tip over. So if the box is all okay to move or whatever the load you are moving, just lean it forward slightly if you can and slide the truck underneath. Do not need to lean it very far, but it devoids having to shove the truck underneath which would damage the box. So just lean the load forward, tilt it back onto the truck and then what you can do is carefully you can support the main axle with your foot just to make sure that it is not going to cause any... Move and cause any problems with slippage and then gently tilt the truck backwards.

When you are doing that, you are just feeling the amount of pressure you are pulling back on it to make sure that it is a nice even pressure, that you have not come into a situation where the load is starting to shift. So the whole time, you need to be very observant, observant of the load, making sure it is secure, it is not leaning or falling in one direction and make sure you lean it nice and steadily back. Once it is in the right position, then you just walk, do not run, do not rush with the load and keep your eyes open the whole time. Keep an eye on it if you go through a pothole or something like that, because again, that can cause the load to shift. When you get to where the load is going to be, then lower it back slowly. Do not put it back too fast because again that can cause the load to tip. Then you can place one hand onto the load and then gently slide the truck out and again make sure that the load is secure.

Finally, once you are finished using the truck, whichever type you can be using, then put it away safely. Do not leave it lying around where someone else is going to fall over it or hurt themselves or trip over the load. Finally, if you are lifting one of these trucks, you need to move it into another location, just be careful. Some of them are very heavy. If it is the more lightweight ones, then obviously if you are lifting it into the back of a car, for example, then make sure you do so correctly using the correct manual handling techniques.