Picking boxes get used for tool organisation more than suppliers probably intend – in service vans, in maintenance stores, on site. They work well for some of that and badly for the rest, and the dividing line is item size.
Where they work well
Bulky kits: power tools, chargers, consumables, fixings in bags. A box that holds a drill, a charger and a bag of screws is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and it is better than a toolbox for it because it stacks and nests.
Service vans are the best application. Boxes stack in a van rack, come out as a unit, and nest empty for return. Several trades run their entire van on them.
Where they work badly
Small hand tools. A picking box is an open container with no division – spanners, screwdrivers and bits end up in a heap at the bottom, and finding one takes longer than it should. A compartmented box is the right tool for that and a picking box is not.
If you want divisions, one of the divider systems made for these boxes solves it. Without them, small tools are the wrong contents.
Weight
The thing to check. A box of tools is much heavier than a box of picked goods, and a picking box is sized for picked goods. Twenty kilos of spanners in a box rated for ten kilos of product will eventually fail at the handle or the base.
If the kit is heavy, look at a turnover box or a crate with a higher load rating rather than a picking box. The turnover option is described in what a turnover box is used for.
In a van
Secure them. A stack of boxes in a van that is not restrained becomes projectiles under braking, and this is the most common problem with the application. A simple rack or a strap across the stack is enough.
Loaded stack height and restraint is covered in loading picking boxes into a delivery van.
Identification
Label them by kit or by job rather than by contents, because contents change and a label that is wrong is worse than no label. A paint marker on the box end works and can be changed.
Knowing what is in them
A tool box with no inventory is a box that loses tools. A laminated card listing contents, in a holder on the box end, takes ten minutes to make and it is the difference between a kit that is complete and one that quietly isn’t.
Check against the card at the end of a job. It is the same principle as a shadow board, applied to something that travels.
Weight in the van, and security
A van full of tool boxes is heavy and it is a target. Keep the heavy kits low, secure the stack, and do not leave boxes visible in a vehicle overnight. The packaging question is secondary to both.
And the obvious check
Make sure the box fits the van before you buy a fleet of them. A box that fits the shelf in the store and not the rack in the vehicle is a common and entirely avoidable mistake.
What we can do
We supply PP picking boxes and will tell you the load rating and whether a divider system suits. Tell us what is going in them and how heavy it is – if a turnover box is the better answer, we will say that.