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The pallet is a packaging decision owned by procurement, and specified by nobody.
In most organisations we deal with, the platform is bought by purchasing against a specification that was inherited rather than chosen. Purchasing then optimises unit price, competently, on a decision nobody made. Meanwhile the pallet interacts with case design, stacking pattern, wrap tension, trailer cube, racking geometry and the receiver's handling equipment — every one of which is a packaging engineering question.
Move the decision upstream and the answers change. One distributor's packaging engineer spent half a day on it: one product line moved to a smaller footprint recovering four trailer positions, economy decks were replaced on the bagged line ending a two-year crushed-case problem blamed on a carrier, and two-thirds of volume moved from A grade to B. Landed cost fell several percent — and procurement's unit price went up on one line, which is exactly why the decision had never been made.
The other strategic question in this area is ownership: buy, rent or pool. We sell whitewood so read that knowing our bias, but the honest answer is a hybrid. Pooled platforms on retail-facing and mandated lanes, owned recycled stock on internal moves, one-way shipments, export and non-standard footprints. That is not indecision, it is matching the asset to the lane.
- Standardise within a product family, not across a company. Two or three footprints is usually optimal.
- Any line under 85% deck utilisation deserves its own calculation. Any overhang deserves an immediate one.
- Measure landed cost per unit shipped, not unit price per pallet. Different number, different decision.
- Ask a pool operator for all-in cost per trip from your own accounts, not the contracted rate.
- One-way lanes, export and odd footprints are where owning wins decisively.
- Forcing unlike products onto one footprint and shipping air on half of them
- Letting a carton overhang the deck and losing a fifth of its compression strength
- Judging the pallet decision on a metric that improves when the business gets worse
- Running a single ownership model across every lane for procurement simplicity
- Never modelling intermediate movements, loss fees and reconciliation labour in a pooling decision
3 on strategy, newest first.
Buy, rent or pool: a decision table
We sell whitewood, so read this knowing our bias. The honest answer is still that it depends, and here is the table.4 min · 823 words · Priya, operations
December 10, 2024The pallet is a packaging decision, not a procurement one
It gets bought by purchasing, specified by nobody, and blamed by logistics. Moving the decision upstream changes the answer.4 min · 831 words · Priya, operations
May 21, 2024The hidden cost of standardising on one footprint
Standardisation is usually right. But a single footprint across unlike products means somebody, somewhere, is shipping air or overhanging a deck.4 min · 875 words · Priya, operations
The tables behind these posts.
The same data we work from in the yard, so you can check the arguments above against the numbers.
| Footprint | Inches | Millimetres | Construction | Top / btm boards | Weight lb | Dynamic load | Racked load | Board feet | Positions per 53′ van |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 × 40 GMA | 48 × 40 | 1219 × 1016 | 3-stringer, notched | 7 / 5 | 33–48 | 2,100–2,800 lb | 1,500–2,500 lb | 37 | 30 |
| 48 × 40 heavy | 48 × 40 | 1219 × 1016 | 3-stringer, thicker | 7 / 7 | 46–58 | 3,000–4,000 lb | 2,200–3,000 lb | 44 | 30 |
| 48 × 40 economy | 48 × 40 | 1219 × 1016 | 3-stringer | 5 / 3 | 28–34 | 1,200–1,800 lb | Not recommended | 27 | 30 |
| 48 × 48 | 48 × 48 | 1219 × 1219 | 4-stringer or block | 7 / 5 + perimeter | 52–68 | 3,000–4,500 lb | 2,000–3,000 lb | 46 | 26 |
| 42 × 42 | 42 × 42 | 1067 × 1067 | 3-stringer, notched | 7 / 5 | 32–44 | 2,000–2,600 lb | 1,400–2,200 lb | 34 | 30 |
| 40 × 48 | 40 × 48 | 1016 × 1219 | 3-stringer, notched | 7 / 5 | 33–48 | 2,100–2,800 lb | 1,400–2,300 lb | 37 | 30 |
| 48 × 42 | 48 × 42 | 1219 × 1067 | 3-stringer, notched | 7 / 5 | 35–50 | 2,200–2,900 lb | 1,500–2,500 lb | 39 | 30 |
| 40 × 40 | 40 × 40 | 1016 × 1016 | 3-stringer, notched | 6 / 4 | 28–40 | 1,800–2,400 lb | 1,200–2,000 lb | 31 | 30 |
| 48 × 36 | 48 × 36 | 1219 × 914 | 3-stringer, notched | 7 / 5 | 30–42 | 1,900–2,500 lb | 1,300–2,100 lb | 33 | 34 |
| Euro / EPAL 1 | 47.2 × 31.5 | 1200 × 800 | 9-block | 11 + 3 bearers | 50–57 | 3,300 lb nominal | 2,200 lb nominal | 33 | 40 |
| Euro 2 / industrial | 47.2 × 39.4 | 1200 × 1000 | 9-block | 11 + 3 bearers | 60–70 | 3,300 lb nominal | 2,200 lb nominal | 41 | 30 |
| Euro 3 / half | 31.5 × 23.6 | 800 × 600 | Block | Varies | 20–26 | 1,100 lb | Not rated | 17 | 80 |
| Quarter / display | 23.6 × 15.7 | 600 × 400 | Block or moulded | Varies | 9–14 | 550 lb | Not rated | 9 | 160 |
| Asia standard | 43.3 × 43.3 | 1100 × 1100 | 9-block | Varies | 48–60 | 2,200 lb nominal | 1,800 lb nominal | 36 | 28 |
| Australia standard | 45.9 × 45.9 | 1165 × 1165 | Block | Varies | 55–66 | 2,200 lb nominal | 1,800 lb nominal | 40 | 26 |
Capacities are indicative ranges for recycled stock, not certifications — see load capacity for how the three ratings differ. Trailer positions assume the better of the two orientations on a 630″ × 98″ floor. Usable floor of a 53-foot dry van. Reefers and curtainsides run shorter and narrower.
| Criterion | Grade A / #1 | Grade B / #2 | Combo | Core / as-is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plugs permitted | No | Yes | In the B portion | N/A — unsorted |
| Companion boards | No | Yes | In the B portion | N/A |
| Stringer repair | No | Yes, plug or plate | In the B portion | N/A |
| Missing boards | None | None | None | Possible |
| Weathering | Light | Visible | Mixed | As received |
| Dimensional tolerance | ±⅜ in | ±½ in | ±½ in | Unchecked |
| Protruding fasteners | None | None | None | Possible |
| Rated load | Full | Full | Full | Unknown |
| Indicative price index | 100 | 62–70 | 75–85 | 30–45 |
| Re-stamped with passport | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Price index is relative, with A-grade set at 100, and moves with the market. Note that rated load is full on A, B and Combo alike — grade is a cosmetic and repair-history statement, not a strength one. Grades explained in full.
| Driver | Weight | Direction | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core availability | Highest | Counter-cyclical | Supply comes from platforms being retired, which tracks goods movement. Recycled prices can firm in a slowdown. |
| Freight & diesel | High | Direct | Pallets are bulky and cheap per pound, so trucking rates move our price faster than lumber does. |
| New lumber index | Moderate | Direct, lagged ~2 quarters | Transmits through new pallet prices, damped at every step. |
| Footprint scarcity | Moderate | Inverse to popularity | An unusual 42×42 can cost more than a common 48×48. Popularity is cheapness. |
| Seasonality | Moderate | Peaks Sep–Oct | Harvest, retail build and construction overlap in eight weeks. |
| Grade mix in the pool | Low–moderate | Widens the A/B spread | A hard winter or a beaten-up inbound stream lowers A-grade yield. |
| Treatment & certification | Low | Direct | A fixed adder per unit, not a market force. |
Note the first row: recycled supply is harvested from platforms being retired, so it can tighten in a slowdown. Buyers tracking only the lumber index are reliably surprised. Full breakdown.
The terms these posts assume you know.
Vocabulary is the cheapest performance upgrade in this industry — almost every argument we have with a new customer comes down to two people using the same word for different objects.
- Core
- An unsorted, un-repaired used pallet — raw material for a recycler. Sold by the load.
- Deck coverage
- The percentage of the pallet footprint actually covered by boards. Drives whether cartons bridge or sag.
- GMA
- Grocery Manufacturers Association, whose 48×40 spec became the de facto North American pallet.
- Whitewood
- Any non-pooled, non-rental pallet — owned outright rather than leased from a programme.
Where strategy meets what we actually sell.
Strategy questions we get.
How many footprints should we run?
Two or three for a mixed-line operation; one only if you are genuinely single-product or heavily automated. The question is not 'how few can we run' but 'which footprint fits this product' — those sound similar and lead to very different annual freight bills. Introduce a second footprint only after you have designed its storage location.
Is pooling or owning cheaper?
It depends on whether the platform comes back to you. Closed loops with mandated specifications favour pooling; one-way shipments, export, non-standard footprints and internal moves favour owning. The costs that decide it — intermediate movements, loss and non-return fees, reconciliation labour — do not appear in the headline per-trip rate.
Who in our organisation should own the pallet decision?
Whoever owns case design, once a year, with purchasing executing it. The platform is the bottom layer of a unit load and belongs in the same conversation as the carton, the pattern and the wrap. Leaving it with procurement alone means optimising price on a specification nobody chose.
Eleven more areas.
NoteSubject pages are reachable from the blog index and from every post rather than the main menu. The full archive lists all forty posts by year.