DRIVE-IN RACKING

How We Engineer a Drive-In Lane

Every drive-in block we install starts with the pallet, not the rack. We measure your actual loaded pallet — most UK sites run a 1200 x 1000 mm CHEP or a 1200 x 800 mm Euro pallet — then set the rail centres to give 75–100 mm clearance each side of the pallet edge and 150 mm above the load. Get that clearance wrong by 25 mm and a driver clips a frame every week, which is how most damaged drive-in blocks we are called out to repair began life.

Lane entries take the punishment, so we specify heavy-duty entry guides bolted to the floor slab and reinforced first uprights on every lane mouth. Where a site runs older counterbalance trucks with poor visibility we add 100 x 100 mm galvanised corner protection as standard. It costs a fraction of a frame replacement and keeps a SEMA inspection green.

Rail brackets are fixed at 1,000–1,200 mm vertical pitch depending on pallet height, and we always design the top beam level so the highest pallet top sits at least 500 mm below sprinkler deflectors — a requirement your insurer will check before they renew.

• Lane depths of 2 to 12 pallets, 6–8 deep is the UK sweet spot
• Rail load capacities from 1,000 kg to 1,500 kg per pallet
• Frame heights to 12,000 mm for high-bay and cold-store units
• Galvanised finish for chilled and freezer environments
• Entry guides and floor-fixed deflectors on every lane
• Designed to FEM 10.2.02 and installed to SEMA guidance

When Drive-In Beats Selective Racking — And When It Doesn't

The honest rule we give customers on survey: drive-in works when you hold at least five to six pallets of every SKU. Below that, lanes sit part-empty, your real utilisation collapses to around 70% of the theoretical figure, and you would have been better off with adjustable pallet racking and a narrower aisle.

Cold stores are the clearest win. At −25 °C, running cost per cubic metre is high enough that halving the aisle count typically pays for the entire racking system inside three to four years on energy alone. That is why almost every frozen food store we work on in the Midlands uses drive-in or drive-through rather than selective.

Where date rotation matters, we specify drive-through — open at both ends for FIFO — and accept the loss of one block face. For mixed operations we routinely design hybrid layouts: a drive-in block against the back wall for bulk lines and two selective runs at the pick face, so order pickers never enter a lane.

Safety, Inspection and Load Notices

Drive-in racking absorbs more impact than any other system because the truck is inside the structure. SEMA and HSE guidance HSG76 require a documented rack inspection at least every 12 months by a technically competent person, plus weekly visual checks recorded by your own PRRS. Our SEMA-approved inspectors grade damage green, amber and red, and we carry replacement uprights and rails for the main UK brands so an amber can be closed out in days rather than months.

Every block we hand over carries a load notice showing maximum pallet weight, lane depth, and the number of pallets permitted per rail level. If your existing drive-in has no legible load notice, it fails inspection — we can re-calculate and re-issue one after a site survey.