Most buyers size a burden carrier the same way they size a forklift: by capacity. That instinct is wrong here, and it leads to buying more vehicle than the job needs.
Start with your longest trip, not your heaviest load
The trips that justify a burden carrier are long and light — a tool crib run, a parts delivery, a QC sample walk, a maintenance round. If your typical load is under 350 lb and your typical trip is over 300 feet, capacity is not your constraint. Distance and shift coverage are.
Measure the routes first. Walk them with a step counter or pull the distances off a facility map. That number tells you far more about what to buy than the weight of anything you are carrying.
Count shifts before you count units
A carrier running three to five hours per charge covers one shift comfortably. Two or three shifts means either downtime on a charger or a second battery pack.
This is where a lot of fleets get sized wrong. A facility running two shifts buys two vehicles when it should have bought one vehicle and two batteries. A swappable 48V pack takes under a minute to change and costs a fraction of a second unit.
Match the deck to the container, not the cargo
Measure the tote, bin, or crate you actually move. A 35"×35" deck fits standard totes and small pallets. A 20"×20" deck keeps the footprint tight for narrow aisles and congested production floors.
Buyers routinely spec the larger deck for a hypothetical maximum load they will move twice a year, then live with a vehicle that is harder to maneuver every day for the next decade. Size for the common case.
Check your aisles honestly
Not the aisle width on the facility drawing — the actual clear width with pallets staged, carts parked, and equipment against the racking. That is the number the vehicle has to live with. Zero-degree turning helps enormously here, because it removes the three-point maneuver at the end of a rack row.
Plan for grade and surface
Dock aprons, ramps between buildings, and expansion joints all pull on runtime. If a meaningful part of your route is on a grade or outdoors, derate your expected battery life and plan the spare pack accordingly.
A quick sizing worksheet
Before requesting a quote, have these five numbers ready: longest routine trip in feet, trips per shift, shifts per day, typical load weight, and the dimensions of the container you carry most often. Those five inputs determine nearly the entire spec.
Send them over and we will come back with a configuration rather than a catalog.