Carts, Trucks & Dollies

Carts, Trucks & Dollies from Channel Manufacturing

In the high-demand world of commercial foodservice, safety, efficiency and convenience are critical to maintaining a smooth and professional operation.

Carts, trucks and dollies are essential tools in the world of foodservice operations as they help the front and back-of-house employees with critical assistance to transport and handle critical parts of the business.

While seemingly simple tools, carts, tucks and dollies play an important role in helping to improve productivity and efficiency, reducing the physical demands and strains of your workers, and ensuring the safe and effective handling of food.

In this overview, we explore the importance of these essential foodservice tools, the benefits they offer, considerations for selecting the best gear for your business, and tips to maximize their efficiency.

The Importance of Carts, Trucks & Dollies

Carts, trucks, and dollies provide simple solutions for transport objectives in a foodservice operation by helping to move food ingredients, kitchen supplies, heavy equipment, and waste.

Time and space are limited in most commercial kitchens and these tools help employees and operators move and transport goods in an organized and effective manner behind the scenes.

Without tools like carts, trucks and dollies, foodservice employees would need to lift, carry and transport heavy materials on their own, not only leading to more injuries, but also increasing the time required to handle specific goods.

Additionally, especially within the foodservice industry, food safety and hygiene are critical to the overall success of an operation. Carts, trucks and dollies help foodservice operators decrease the contamination of foodservice goods by reducing the hands-on contact of goods by employees.

Carts and trucks also allow foodservice businesses to organize and separate different goods, helping to keep perishable items fresher longer even while they are transported around busy kitchens.

No matter if your team is moving large volumes of ingredients off of trucks and into storage, or transporting dishes from the washing station to racks to dry, carts, trucks and dollies have critical importance in the world of foodservice.

Benefits of using Carts, Trucks & Dollies in Foodservice Operations

As we have begun to touch upon above, the use of carts, trucks and dollies in foodservice settings is critical to the overall success of the operation.

Some of the key advantages that carts, trucks and dollies offer include:

1. Reduced Physical Strain on Employees – Foodservice businesses often require lifting, transporting and handling bulky, heavy items. This can include bulk ingredients like flour, canned goods, or fresh produce. Manually carrying these items can result in injuries for your workforce, leading to loss of team members to injury or just increased inefficiency for your locations. Carts, trucks and dollies, simplify the process of material handling, allowing workers to transport heavier loads with ease.
2. Improved Efficiency – Most foodservice environments thrive on efficiency. From accessing ingredients quickly, to providing a smooth and quality experience for your guests, tools like carts, trucks and dollies simplify the process of material handling, helping to make your entire operation run more efficiently over the long run.
3. Increases Food Safety – Ensuring high standards for food safety is paramount for any foodservice operation. Carts, trucks and dollies help foodservice operators keep ingredients segregated and safe during transport and handling, which helps to minimize any contamination that could occur. Additionally, some specialized carts can help control temperatures of items, to make sure that they remain food safe no matter where they are in your location.
4. Increased organization – Organization is critical to ensuring a smooth workflow. This is especially true in commercial foodservice operations. Carts, trucks and dollies help kitchens keep food better organized, limit clutter and helps team members be more effective, especially in times of peak demand.

Considerations for Choosing the Right Carts, Trucks & Dollies

Like most things in the world of foodservice, carts, trucks and dollies come in a variety of sizes and use types.

Choosing the equipment that best fits your unique foodservice operation can be tricky if you don’t know the specific demands of your business.

Some of the key factors to consider when choosing your new carts, trucks or dollies include:

1. Load Capacities – Weight and volume considerations are among the primary considerations when choosing your new equipment. Make sure that you are choosing equipment that is built to withstand the requirements of weight and volume without straining the equipment or your workforce.
2. Equipment Construction Materials – Carts, trucks and dollies are designed and manufactured in a variety of material types. Plastic carts are lightweight and easy to transport, but are prone to damage. Stainless steel is great for durability and corrosion resistance, but can be heavier and more costly in terms of initial investments. Aluminum strikes a good balance between affordability and durability.
3. Maneuverability – In many commercial kitchens, space is limited. Choosing carts, trucks and dollies that can be easily manipulated, moved and navigated in tight spaces can be critical to your foodservice operation.
4. Specific design uses – Many businesses design and manufacture unique carts, trucks and dollies that are created for specific use-cases within foodservice. This could include ingredient bins for secure storage, hot food carts, utility carts with shelving and other uses. Choosing products that help you maximize your operation’s efficiency can be critical when choosing your carts.
5. Cleaning ease – Hygiene and food safety are critical factors in the world of foodservice and material handling. Foodservice operators should choose equipment that is easy for staff to clean and sanitize, making sure that a high standard of food safety can be maintained.
6. Durability – When choosing any new foodservice equipment, the durability of the equipment is a critical factor to consider. It’s important to invest in carts, trucks and dollies that can provide long-term use under even the heaviest demands.

Maximizing the Use of Carts, Trucks and Dollies in Your Foodservice Operations

Once you’ve chosen the best carts, trucks and dollies for your operation, it’s important to maximize the use of these tools to the best of their ability.

This includes educating team members on proper usage, maintenance issues and more.

Some of the top tips to help your organization better maximize the benefits of carts, trucks and dollies include:

• Train employees on correct usage – Even if you purchase the absolute top-of-the-line equipment, it won’t help your business be more efficient if your employees don’t know how to use it. Make sure that your team knows exactly how to use the new carts, trucks and dollies in the most effective way possible to prevent accidents and to limit any damage to the new equipment.
• Conduct regular maintenance – As the starting point for material handling, your new carts, trucks and dollies will be exposed to constant wear and tear. That’s why it’s critical to constantly stay on top of regular maintenance for your new equipment. Regularly monitor the carts, trucks and dollies for any signs of wear and tear and make any necessary repairs to avoid breakdowns or accidents. Regular cleaning and lubrication of parts within your new equipment is paramount to the longevity of your product’s lifespan.
• Optimize the load distribution – In a fast-paced and high-demand foodservice environment, it’s easy to overload carts, trucks and dollies. Be sure to distribute weight evenly on your carts to ensure that your equipment is used effectively and provides for a balanced load distribution of your material handling goods.
• Use specialized carts for specific tasks – Instead of just using your one common dolly for all material handling issues, be sure to plan the use of specialized carts for different necessary tasks in your operation. For example, use separate carts for food prep, storage, and transport.
• Plan tools in your Workflow – Carts, trucks and dollies need to be planned and integrated into the normal workflows of your busy kitchen. Make sure that these tools are setup with easy access to storage areas, ingredient prep station and other critical components within your foodservice operation.

Carts, Trucks & Dollies at Channel Manufacturing

Here at Channel Manufacturing, we design and manufacture a variety of specialized carts, trucks and dollies that are built to help foodservice operators maximize the efficiency of foodservice locations.

Some of our most popular carts, trucks and dollies include:

Bus Boxes:

Mobile Aluminum Utility Carts.

• Bus Boxes are created with Heavy duty, high tensile extruded aluminum. Type 6063-T5 alloy
• Lifetime guarantee against rust.
• Standard 5″ full swivel non-marking casters. Casters are securely bolted to frame to facilitate replacements.

Busing & Utility Carts:

Our bussing and utility carts are designed as a mobile multi-purpose all-welded 18 gauge, 304 Series stainless steel cart.

• 500 lb. distributed weight capacity.
• Standard 5″ full swivel non-marking casters. Casters are securely bolted to frame to facilitate replacements.
• Fully assembled, all-welded, and ready for use. Includes corner bumpers.

Glass & Milk Crate Dollies:

Our milk crate & glass dollies are mobile aluminum dollies designed for the easy storage and transport of glass racks or milk crates.

• Heavy duty, high tensile extruded aluminum
• Lifetime guarantee against rust
• Shipped fully assembled, all-welded and ready for use

Hand Trucks:

Our Hand trucks are designed to assist with transport in foodservice applications.

• All-welded structural steel frame
• 1″ diameter, 14 gauge tube frame. 13½” wide x 7″ deep, 7 gauge nose with rounded corners

U-boat Stocking Trucks:

Extra strong (2500 lb. cap.) Grocery Warehouse Trucks are designed to easily maneuver heavy loads perfect for foodservice & material handling equipment applications.

• U-boat Stocking Trucks are available in Steel with a protective powder-coated finish. Custom aluminum U-boats can also be manufactured.
• All non-marking abrasion-resistant wheels. Six wheel design, (2) rigid 8″ wheels and (4) 4″ swivel casters.

Conclusions on Carts, Trucks & Dollies

For a busy foodservice business, carts, trucks and dollies are the lifeblood that keeps the operation moving efficiently.

These simple tools offer a number of benefits for both foodservice employees and operators that include benefits for employee safety, improved efficiency of the operation and better overall organization.

Choosing the best equipment for your carts, trucks and dollies involves carefully considering your business’s unique objectives and workflows, as well as the operational demands of your material handling objectives.

Investing in the right equipment and using it effectively can have a lasting positive impact on your foodservice operation, whether you are established or just starting out.

Have questions about carts, trucks and dollies?

Contact us today and a member of our team will help you with personalized service to help you maximize your budget for your foodservice equipment.