Supplemental jog and/or twist grip or other drive motor speed walk along controllers for walkie/rider pallet trucks

Supplemental walk along control for walkie/rider pallet trucks is provided by supplemental controllers such as jog and coast release switches and/or twist grips (or other drive motor speed controllers) provided adjacent the base of load carrying forks. The supplemental controllers are enabled during coasting operation so that operators can advance to the base of the forks to accelerate the trucks between closely spaced picks located along substantially straight portions of pick routes. For application of the trucks' brakes, the operators activate the coast release switches to release the coast mode and enable deadman brake mechanisms to brake the trucks and/or by plug braking with the twist grips. A steering direction detector is provided to determine the direction of the steered wheel so that if the steered wheel is not directed substantially straight ahead, then operation of the truck from the supplemental controls is disabled.