A pallet does not need a passenger. A stock picker, tenant or staff member who has to steady a trolley, access an upper level or return to the ground floor does. That distinction answers the question, can staff ride goods lifts? Sometimes, but only where the lift has been designed, installed and registered for people to travel with the goods.
The name on a quotation is not enough. “Goods lift” is used loosely across the market. It can describe equipment intended only for materials, a permanent goods-carrying lift that is also certified for passengers, or a construction hoist used while a building is going up. These are different applications with different operating arrangements.
For a developer or facility manager, the issue is rarely academic. It affects who can use the equipment, whether an attendant needs to be rostered, what happens at busy times and whether the operating model still works once the building is occupied.
Can staff ride goods lifts?
Staff can ride in a goods lift when the particular lift is designed and certified to carry people as well as goods, and when its operating arrangement allows it. A lift intended for goods only should be treated as goods-only equipment. The fact that its car is large enough for a person, or that someone can physically enter it, does not change its intended use.
This is where early briefing matters. A lift contractor needs to establish who will use the lift, what they will move and whether they need to travel with the load. Those answers determine the lift category before car size, doors or finishes are discussed.
A warehouse may have trained staff moving palletised stock with a forklift or pallet jack. A goods-only arrangement may suit if no one needs to travel with the load. A multi-level self-storage facility is different. Tenants commonly need to accompany trolleys, furniture and boxed goods between floors. Designing that operation around a goods-only hoist can leave the operator with a lift that does not match how customers actually use the building.
The cheaper option can be appropriate. Goods-only equipment can have a simpler operating model where trained staff control loading and unloading from each landing. But the comparison changes when a person must move with the load as part of normal use. At that point, the question is not whether a goods hoist can move the weight. It is whether the equipment is intended for that person to travel in it.
The operating model comes first
The lift should follow the building’s operating model, not the other way around. That means mapping a normal movement through the building: who calls the lift, who loads it, who selects the destination, who unloads it and whether the same person is expected to travel between landings.
In a staff-operated warehouse, one trained operator may control the movement and staff may work at each level. This can suit a goods-only lifting arrangement if the workflow does not require anyone to ride. It also relies on the business accepting the staffing and coordination required whenever stock moves between floors.
In a tenant-operated building, the calculation is different. Self-storage customers do not arrive to wait for a staff member to marshal every trolley movement. If customers are expected to move goods independently, they generally need equipment designed for people to travel with their loads. Otherwise, the operation either depends on an attendant or asks users to work around the lift’s intended function.
That is the cost line worth examining. It is not just the supply and installation cost. Compare the cost of the equipment against the ongoing labour and management needed to make the selected operating arrangement work. A rostered attendant may be reasonable in a tightly controlled industrial process. It is often a poor fit for a customer-accessed facility with long opening hours.
There is also a practical downtime question. When one item of equipment is the only route between levels, a failure interrupts more than freight movement. It can stop a tenant completing a move-in, delay stock replenishment or force staff into a manual workaround. The expected users and traffic pattern should inform the lift capacity, doors, landing layout and service access from the start.
Do not confuse a construction hoist with a permanent lift
Construction hoists are useful during a build. They move workers and materials while the structure, façade and internal fit-out are still being completed. They are not a substitute for the permanent lift that will serve the completed building.
A permanent goods lift or passenger-and-goods lift is designed around the finished shaft, landings, doors, controls and long-term use of the building. It is installed and registered for that purpose. The construction programme may make a temporary hoist attractive, particularly where materials need to reach upper floors before the permanent shaft is ready. That does not answer the question of how staff, tenants or customers will use the building after handover.
Keeping the temporary and permanent scopes separate avoids a common planning mistake. The builder needs lifting access during construction. The owner needs an operating lift after practical completion. They may share some site constraints, but they are not the same equipment decision.
Certification follows the intended use
For permanent commercial work, the lift specification needs to state whether people will travel with goods. That instruction should carry through the design, manufacture, installation and registration process rather than being left to a site decision at the end.
At Apex Elevation, our equipment is manufactured to EN 81-20:2020, EN 81-50:2020 and the 2014/33/EU Lifts Directive, then installed in line with the applicable requirements of AS 1735.1.1:2022 and AS 1735.1.2:2020 and WorkSafe registration processes. The applicable arrangement still depends on the lift type and intended use. Standards are not a label to apply after the operating model has been chosen.
The controls, door protection, emergency communication and rescue arrangements all need to suit the people expected to use the lift. So do the instructions handed to the facility manager. A lift used by trained warehouse staff is managed differently from one used by the public or by self-storage tenants throughout the day.
This is also why a change of use deserves a fresh discussion. A building can evolve. A former staff-only storeroom can become leased space, or an industrial tenancy can shift to a higher-turnover operation. If people will begin travelling with loads where they did not previously, assess the existing lift against the proposed use before changing site procedures.
The shaft and builder’s work still decide the job
The decision to carry people affects more than the lift itself. It reaches into the shaft, landing openings and surrounding builder’s work. In a new build, these requirements can be coordinated before concrete is poured or framing is fixed. In a retrofit, the interfaces need closer attention.
The lift rails need to remain parallel over the full travel. A shaft that narrows, twists or varies from floor to floor causes work at the point where installation should be progressing. Existing buildings often have uneven slabs, old structural steel, services crossing potential openings and walls that are not where the drawings suggest.
Door openings need consistent framing and thresholds that meet the finished floor levels. The controller needs a location that can be accessed for service without disrupting the tenant or blocking an escape route. Bulkheads, fire services, ventilation and electrical containment all need to be resolved around the lift package.
None of this means a retrofit is unsuitable. It means the survey needs to occur early enough for the design team to act on it. The wrong time to discover a landing opening cannot be formed as drawn is after finishes are ordered and the lift is scheduled for installation.
Put the question in the brief
Before seeking prices, write one plain sentence into the lift brief: “Users will” or “will not” travel with their goods. Then identify who those users are – trained staff, building staff, tenants, customers or contractors – and whether they will operate the lift without an attendant.
That statement gives the contractor something useful to assess. It also exposes where the proposed building operation and the selected equipment are out of step. If the answer is uncertain, plan for the likely occupied use rather than the most convenient construction-stage assumption.
The right lift is not necessarily the largest or most elaborate one. It is the one whose certified use, controls and building interfaces match the people who will stand in the car after the project team has left site.
