Some industries are often synonymous with certain types of materials handling equipment. The giant food wholesale markets like Smithfield or Billingsgate always used sack barrows to move their cartons and boxes around. The giant Thames Wharves of bygone London similarly used stillages and pallets to store a whole variety of products for onward delivery. The food wholesale industry probably identifies with the ‘cash and carry’ style of hand trolley more than any other. However, what we are finding is that although many businesses transgress into the more automated warehouse style of operation, there is still a great demand for the humble trolley at base level.
Indeed, we constantly find that we supply the good old cash and carry trolley to more outlets than just purely the cash and carries. Often the standard product needs to be ‘tweaked’ to suit a particular application but usually, the original design proves satisfactory for most operators.
The standard nesting cash and carry trolley comes complete with or without a bottle basket attached. The platform size is usually 1200 x 600mm, although increased sizes of up to 2000 x 800mm are possible. The normal weight loading capacity is 500kg with increased capacities are also possible if a little extra frame strengthening and improved quality of wheels and castors are employed. The standard wheeling is rubber tyred on polypropylene centres, starting at 125mm diameter and moving up to 200mm diameter as shown above.
The great benefit of these types of trolleys are that they are very easy to use and highly manoeuvrable in tight spaces. Coupled with the ability to ‘nest’ when not in use, this makes a quantity of trolleys easy to nest away in a relatively small space. The entry level of trolley is fitted with a plywood base which generally suits most applications, however other types of bases can be fitted, like marine plywood or even sheet steel to provide a heavier duty or a waterproof finish.
Self-storage centres are an increasing phenomenon in the UK. Especially for people needing easy access to them, whilst moving home or for those who prefer to archive their possessions in storage for longer periods of time. A customer of ours has embarked on a growth cycle by opening a dozen new centres a year and they find that a bespoke version of the cash and carry trolley proves invaluable for their customers to use. The trolley above is zinc plated, fitted with a bottle basket and a marine plywood platform, but crucially they are also fitted with great quality 200mm diameter rubber tyred non marking wheels that have a footbrake fitted on two of the four wheels. These wheels give a far greater life performance than other more standard wheel fittings and therefore require far less maintenance or early replacement.
We have supplied cash and carry trolleys in the last 12 months to shopping centres, government buildings, NHS hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, as well as a multitude of cash and carry outlets or food retail centres up and down the country. The trolleys versatility and flexible ability ensure that they are a good fit for all industry types.
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