PURPOSE: To enable improvement in a cycle time, by a method wherein the crane in the titled with an elevating carriage is constituted such that a variable speed motor is employed for elevating carriage and it runs at a slow speed during loaded running of an elevating carriage and at a high speed during no-load running thereof.

CONSTITUTION: The presence of a cargo on a running fork is detected, and when the load is present, the speed command value of an inverter 11 is set to a slow speed value by means of a control signal 16a, and an elevating carriage 3 is elevated at a slow speed. When a cargo is absent, the elevating carriage, reversely, is elevated at a high speed. A pulse encoder 18, operated attandantly on elevating drive of the carriage 3, adds and subtracts an oscillating pulse with the aid of a microcomputer 14, computes the present position of the carriage 3, and controls the elevating movement of the elevating carriage 3 as the results of computation are compared with a destination shelf address data. The constitution is set in this way so that a speed is selected is improved, according to the presence or absence of a load, and thus a cycle time and the performance can be enhanced.