Forklifts drive straight into the lane, so there is no aisle between rows. The highest storage density available without automation.
If you hold large quantities of a small number of products, drive-in will fit far more into the same building than anything else that uses a standard forklift.
Drive-in removes the aisle between rows entirely. Instead of picking from the face of a shelf, the forklift drives into a lane between two rail-guided frames and sets the pallet onto cantilevered arms, several positions deep.
The trade is access. You can only reach the pallet nearest the aisle, and the lane empties in reverse order, so it works last in, first out. That suits bulk product far better than dated stock.
Frames are roll-formed for standard loads, with structural guide rails and column guards at the lane entry where forklifts actually make contact. Every system is engineered to your loads and signed off on site before you load it.
Every drive-in system is built to the building and the pallet. These are typical ranges, not fixed limits.
| Specification | Typical Range |
|---|---|
| Pallet Access | Front of lane only, last in is first out |
| Storage Density | High. Commonly 60 to 75 percent more than selective |
| Lane Depth | Usually 3 to 8 pallets deep, up to 10 in some layouts |
| Stock Rotation | LIFO only. Not suited to dated or expiring product |
| Upright Height | Commonly 12 to 35 ft, limited by clear height and sprinklers |
| Forklift Type | Reach truck or purpose-built drive-in forklift |
| Rail Protection | Floor guide rails and entry column guards as standard |
| Steel Type | Roll-formed frames, structural rails at contact points |
| Best Suited To | Few SKUs, high volume per SKU, cold storage, seasonal bulk |
Figures are typical, not a specification. We confirm lane depth, clearances and rail positions against your pallet counts during the free site assessment.
Drive-in is the densest system we supply, but it is unforgiving if your stock does not suit it. If your operation looks like the right column, we will say so.
These are the conditions where nothing stores more per square foot.
Most Ontario warehouses land here. Book a free site assessment and we will confirm it against your pallet counts.
In these cases drive-in will cost you more in wasted positions than it saves in floor.
Try push back, double deep, pallet flow or selective instead.
It is what happens when a lane is only part full. Because you load and unload from one end, any gap created partway down a lane is unusable until the whole lane is cleared and restocked. It is the single biggest reason drive-in underperforms in practice, and it is why we ask about your SKU count and order patterns before recommending it.
Typically 3 to 8 pallets, occasionally more. The limit is usually the operator, not the steel. The further into a lane a driver has to reverse with pallets either side, the slower and riskier it gets, so there is a point where extra depth stops paying for itself.
A reach truck sized to your lane width and load height, or a purpose-built drive-in truck for deeper or narrower runs. Standard counterbalance forklifts are usually too wide. We check what you already run before we set the lane dimensions.
Drive-in stores more per lane, but the forklift enters the structure, which means more impact damage over time. Push back keeps the truck in the aisle and nests pallets on carts instead, which is faster to load and gentler on the racking, at slightly lower density. If you are weighing the two, give us your pallet counts and we will size both.
More than with selective, honestly. Forklifts operating inside a rack structure will make contact. That is why guide rails and entry column guards are standard rather than optional, and why we recommend a scheduled inspection rather than waiting for something to look wrong.
The four systems people most often weigh against drive-in.
