How much pallet overhang is too much? Ideally, a palletized load should not unintentionally extend beyond the pallet footprint. There is no single amount of overhang that is acceptable for every load, but even modest overhang can expose product to damage and create clearance problems in trailers, pallet racks, staging lanes and automated handling systems. If overhang is recurring, it is worth finding out why.
A load comes off the palletizer with cartons hanging an inch beyond one side of the pallet. It still looks stable, the stretch wrap is holding and the forklift can pick it up. Is an inch really enough to worry about?
Possibly. The problem with pallet overhang is that the extra inch doesn’t stay confined to the palletizer. It travels with the load.
Overhang changes the effective size of the load
A 48×40-inch pallet carrying a load that extends beyond its edges is no longer effectively a 48×40-inch handling unit. That can matter when loads are staged side by side, loaded tightly into a trailer or container, placed into a pallet rack, or moved through conveyors and automated equipment. For more on why pallet dimensions matter throughout the handling system, see our guide to standard pallet sizes.
Overhanging product is also more exposed to contact with adjacent loads, rack uprights and lift trucks. A small dimensional problem at the beginning of the trip can become damaged packaging and product somewhere farther downstream.
OSHA’s general materials-handling requirements don’t establish a permissible number of inches of pallet overhang. They do, however, require adequate clearances where mechanical equipment operates and require stored materials to remain stable and secure. Overhang can also create a practical safety problem. A forklift operator approaching an overhanging load as if the product ended at the pallet edge could clip another unit load, potentially dislodging cartons or shifting the adjacent load.
Product support matters too
Overhang can also mean that part of the package isn’t supported by the pallet deck. How important that is depends on what is being shipped.
Research at Virginia Tech’s Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design illustrates why support conditions deserve attention. In testing involving plastic pails, overhanging the pallet deck reduced pail compression strength by 12% to 46%, depending on the pail and overhang condition. Virginia Tech’s Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design provides details of the testing.
Corrugated cases have their own performance characteristics, but the broader point remains: changing how a package is supported can change how it performs. Our related article, Should Cartons Overhang a Pallet or Be Set Back From the Edge?, looks more closely at the packaging side of the question.
Recurring overhang is a symptom worth investigating
That doesn’t mean that a load with a quarter-inch of overhang should automatically be rejected. Pallets and products aren’t manufactured to infinitely precise dimensions, and some unit loads are deliberately designed with particular geometries. But an operation routinely dealing with noticeable, unintended overhang should look upstream.
Is the wrong pallet being used? Has the case size changed? Is the pallet pattern incorrect? Is the load drifting during palletizing or stretch wrapping? Is the pallet itself undersized for the product?
If the load is also beginning to lean, the problem may extend beyond pallet dimensions. See Why Is My Pallet Load Leaning?. Loads that leave the dock correctly positioned but move later in the journey raise a different question, covered in Why Do Pallet Loads Shift During Transportation?
The useful question isn’t really, “How many inches of overhang can I get away with?”
It is “Why is my load overhanging the pallet, and will that larger handling envelope create problems farther down the supply chain?”
Find answers to more questions about pallet dimensions, load stability, pallet capacity and safe handling at our Pallet Problems hub.
Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.