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Drive-In & Push-Back Racking

High-density storage that trades some selectivity for a lot more pallets in the same footprint.

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Drive-In & Push-Back Racking

Drive-In & Push-Back Racking

Selective racking gives you a reach into every pallet position but spends most of its footprint on aisles. Drive-in and push-back racking flip that trade: pallets store several deep in a single lane, with one aisle serving the whole lane instead of one aisle per pallet. The result is a lot more storage density in the same building footprint, the cost is that you can't reach every pallet directly, only the ones at the front or back of a lane.

The two systems store deep differently. Drive-in racking lets a forklift drive directly into the lane on rails to place or pull a pallet, first-in-last-out. Push-back racking stays out of the lane entirely, pallets ride nested carts on an incline, and loading one pushes the row behind it back, unloading pulls the next one forward. Push-back gives you 2 to 5 pallets deep without the forklift ever entering the rack; drive-in typically runs deeper but needs the truck inside the structure.

Drive-In: Forklift In, Fewer Moving Parts

How It Works

Drive-In: Forklift In, Fewer Moving Parts

Drive-in racking is built from continuous rails bolted between upright frames, no beams at every level, just guide rails the forklift's forks and wheels ride on as it drives into the lane. It's a simple, durable structure with no moving parts to maintain, and it's the deeper of the two systems when the building height and load allow it.

Because the truck operates inside the rack, drive-in needs more precise driving and a bit more clearance than push-back, and it runs strictly last-in-first-out per lane: whatever went in last comes out first. That makes it the right fit for large batches of one SKU where rotation within the batch doesn't matter.

Applications

When Density Beats Selectivity

Cold Storage & Freezer

Cubic footage is expensive to refrigerate, so the density gain from deep-lane storage pays for itself fastest in cold and freezer environments.

Single-SKU Bulk Storage

Large quantities of one product (seasonal inventory, bulk raw material, one big production run) are exactly what deep-lane storage is built for, since there's nothing else in the lane to reach around.

Space-Constrained Facilities

When floor space is the hard limit and pallet count needs to go up anyway, trading some selectivity for density is often the only lever left to pull.

Why Deep-Lane Storage

Fewer aisles, more pallets

2 to 5 Pallets Deep

Lane depth is engineered to your building and your SKU volume: push-back typically runs 2 to 5 deep, drive-in can run deeper where the layout supports it.

No Moving Parts (Drive-In)

Drive-in racking is a fixed rail structure with nothing to maintain, adjust, or replace beyond the frame itself.

No Truck In the Rack (Push-Back)

Push-back keeps the forklift entirely in the aisle: pallets ride carts on an incline, so there's no driving into the structure at all.

Tell us your SKU count and pallet volume per SKU.

We will recommend drive-in or push-back, size the lanes, and send a written quote with a general layout drawing.

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One Aisle, an Entire Lane of Pallets

One Aisle, an Entire Lane of Pallets

Both systems solve the same problem the same way: give up reaching every pallet directly in exchange for far more pallets per aisle. Where selective rack devotes most of its footprint to access, deep-lane storage devotes almost all of it to product.

The right call between the two comes down to your SKU count and how deep you can run a lane before it stops paying off. Facilities with a handful of high-volume SKUs are the classic drive-in or push-back case.

Nested Carts vs. Fixed Rails

Nested Carts vs. Fixed Rails

Push-back's nested carts do the work a drive-in's rails don't need to: a new pallet pushes the row behind it up an incline, and gravity feeds the next pallet forward when one is picked. No forklift ever enters the structure.

Drive-in trades that mechanism for depth and simplicity: a forklift drives the rails directly, with nothing between the truck and the pallet but the rail itself.

Drive-In & Push-Back Racking

Key Features

  • Drive-in: continuous rail construction, no beams at every level
  • Push-back: nested carts on an incline, 2 to 5 pallets deep per lane
  • Lane depth and count engineered to your SKU volume and building height
  • Drive-in runs last-in-first-out per lane; push-back is also LIFO per lane
  • Capacity per lane documented for your safety file
  • Seismic-rated configurations available for applicable zones
  • General drawings included, with stamped drawings and permitting on request
  • The right system depends on your SKU count per lane, we help you choose

Frequently Asked Questions

Drive-in has the forklift drive directly into the lane on fixed rails. Push-back keeps the forklift in the aisle and uses nested carts on an incline: loading one pallet pushes the row behind it back. Push-back is generally easier to operate correctly; drive-in can run deeper.
Both drive-in and push-back are last-in-first-out per lane: whatever loads in last comes out first. If you need first-in-first-out rotation, carton flow or pallet flow racking is the right system instead.
It depends on lane depth and how many SKUs you're storing, but the core trade is real: one aisle serves an entire lane of pallets instead of one aisle per pallet position. Tell us your pallet count and SKU mix and we will estimate the footprint difference against selective rack.
If you have large quantities of relatively few SKUs and want maximum depth, drive-in usually wins. If you have more SKU variety and want easier, more forgiving operation without a truck driving into the structure, push-back is usually the better fit. Tell us your SKU count and volume and we'll recommend one.
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