Drive-in racking

Drive-in racking in warehouse logistics

Drive-in racking is used in warehouse logistics to store goods. Goods can be placed in them to save a lot of space. They combine the advantages of rack and block storage. Pallets are primarily used as the loading unit of the drive-in racking for storage.

Drive-in shelving can be loaded from one side only. To do this, a forklift truck drives into the aisle of the rack and places the pallet on the longitudinal beams, which are attached to the side. These longitudinal beams are also called brackets or side rails and are distributed over several levels of the shelving.

Due to their special design, drive-in racks can only be operated from one side. Storage according to the first-in-first-out principle (FIFO) is therefore not possible.

The advantages and disadvantages of a drive-in rack

Drive-in racking has both advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• High storage possible (no dynamic pressure on lower pallets)
• Very high degree of space utilization

Disadvantages:

• Storage and retrieval still possible from one side only
• Pallets can only be stored from bottom to top and retrieved from top to bottom