Every facility measures throughput, downtime, and pick rate. Almost none measure walking — which means the largest unmanaged labor cost in most large buildings is invisible to the people responsible for it.
The arithmetic
It is simpler than it looks. Average human walking pace on a facility floor is about 3 mph, slower with a load. So:
- 1 mile walked = about 20 minutes
- 5 miles per shift = about 1 hour 40 minutes
- 8 miles per shift = about 2 hours 40 minutes
Multiply transit hours by your fully loaded labor rate — wage plus benefits, taxes, and overhead, not wage alone — then by shifts per year and headcount.
A worked example: 25 people, 8 miles per shift, $28 per hour loaded, 5 shifts a week, 50 weeks. That is 2.67 transit hours per person per shift, or 16,667 hours a year across the group. At $28, roughly $467,000 of paid walking annually.
That figure is not all recoverable — nothing recovers 100% of transit — but it sets the scale of the problem.
Getting real distance data
Do not estimate. Three options, cheapest first:
- Pedometers or phone step counts for a week across a representative sample. Nearly free, surprisingly accurate.
- Floor plan plus task analysis. Map common routes and multiply by frequency from your WMS or CMMS.
- RTLS or badge data if you already have it. Most precise, and you are probably already paying for it.
Add the injury side — from your own data
Manual material handling and prolonged walking contribute to musculoskeletal disorders, which are a leading category of warehouse injury claims. But do not use an industry average in your business case. Use your OSHA 300 log.
Pull the last three years. Count entries tied to walking, standing, pushing, pulling, and carrying. Multiply by your average total claim cost, including indirect costs — backfill labor, retraining, investigation time, and premium impact, which typically exceed the direct medical cost.
Your own numbers are both more defensible and, in most facilities, more persuasive than anything published.
Being honest about recovery rates
Here is where most vendor business cases fall apart. Recovered transit time is not automatically recovered productive time. Some of it disperses into slack, breaks, and coordination.
Conservative planning assumptions:
- Congested floors with constant stops: 40–50% of transit time recoverable
- Open runs with fewer stops: 55–70%
- Of that recovered time, expect a meaningful share to convert to measurable output — not all of it
Build the case at the conservative end. If it still works there, it will survive a finance review. If it only works at 90% recovery, it does not work.
What to do with the number
- Calculate annual walking cost for your facility.
- Apply a conservative recovery rate.
- Add injury cost avoidance from your own OSHA data.
- Compare against the fleet cost required to cover your walkers.
- Pilot one zone and measure before-and-after output, not just travel time.
Frequently asked questions
How many miles do warehouse workers actually walk?
It varies enormously by building size and role. Measure your own — published averages will not match your floor.
Should we include injury costs in the business case?
Yes, using your own claims data. It is the more defensible source and usually the more compelling one.
What recovery rate should we assume?
Start at 40–50% and go up only if you have measured data supporting more.
How do we prove it worked?
Measure output per person before and after in the pilot zone. Travel time saved is the input; output is the proof.
The calculator below runs this model with your own figures.
