Chep to roll out triple tine forklifts nationally after finding efficiency improvement in its South Australian service centre.

Chep will use triple-tine forklifts in all of its metro operations nationally as of next year.

Chep says the introduction of the the forklifts at its Gillman service centre in South Australia in January reduced load times by an average of 10.5 minutes.

The triple-tine forklift has an advantage over the traditional forklift by allowing the user to carry three stacks of pallets at a time instead of two.

"It has certainly decreased the wait time customers' trucks spend in the yard which delivers cost benefits. I’ve been here for 23 years and this is the least congested I’ve ever seen the yard in this normally busy lead up to Christmas," Chep regional operations manager Mike O’Flaherty says.

Chep say it worked with the manufacturers to build an attachment that can safely handle three pallets and to get a forklift with the specs to handle the increase in weight.

"My expectation is that we see wait times reduced across the board with the flow-on effect being improved efficiency for our customers and reduced transportation costs," Chep operations manager Antony Hill says