A powered industrial truck (PIT) is OSHA's term for a mobile, power-propelled truck used to carry, push, pull, lift, stack or tier materials, including forklifts, motorized pallet trucks, order pickers and tow tractors.
The term sets the scope of 29 CFR 1910.178, which covers fork trucks, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks and other specialized industrial trucks powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines. It excludes vehicles intended primarily for earth moving or over-the-road hauling, farm vehicles, and trucks powered by compressed air or nonflammable compressed gas. OSHA groups PITs into seven classes, from electric motor rider trucks in Class I to rough terrain forklifts in Class VII.
The legal term matters because the training, inspection and operating rules attach to it. A motorized walkie pallet truck is a PIT and needs trained, evaluated operators; a manual pallet jack is not. Sites with several vehicle types should list which ones fall inside the PIT program. See what PIT stands for and PIT equipment types.