Pallet History: Origins, World War II, Pooling & Modern Pallets

How pallets evolved from improvised skids to engineered components of logistics infrastructure

pallet history. Scene from the U.S. Navy Materials Handling Lab in Hingham, Mass. — Photo credit: Palletizer Magazine. The U.S. Navy’s Material Hanlding Lab in Hingham, Mass. tested a variety of pallets, including the steel wire pallet shown above.

The development of the pallet was a process rather than a single event. It emerged gradually as manufacturers and warehouses experimented with ways to move larger quantities of material with less manual handling. Early load platforms evolved alongside lift trucks, while stacking requirements encouraged the addition of stringers, bottom boards and eventually the familiar double-faced pallet.

The process accelerated dramatically during World War II, when military logistics exposed the limitations of hand handling and created an urgent need for greater throughput. Palletization subsequently spread through civilian industry, interacting with changes in trucking, warehousing, manufacturing, and retail distribution.

Standard pallet sizes became increasingly important, pallet manufacturing developed into a specialized industry, reusable pallet pools took shape, and new materials and technologies broadened the role of the pallet.

This hub brings together RPN’s historical coverage of pallets and palletized handling, from the experimental systems of the early twentieth century through pooling, plastic pallets and today’s increasingly automated and digitally connected supply chains.

1. Before World War II: Pallets Emerge Alongside Mechanized Handling

The origins of the pallet are inseparable from the development of material-handling equipment. Early twentieth-century factories and warehouses relied heavily on hand trucks and other forms of manual movement. Simple platforms allowed a quantity of material to be moved together, initially using low-lift trucks that raised the entire platform rather than entering it with forks.

As powered trucks developed greater lifting capability, the opportunity to stack loads rather than simply move them horizontally changed the design problem. Initially, wooden spacers allowed fork entry and retraction for block stacking loads, while the later addition of a bottom deck improved operator safety, load distribution and structural stability.

There was no clean progression from skid to pallet, and many competing handling technologies remained in use. Conveyors, cranes, hoists, elevators and various industrial trucks were all being developed at the same time. Palletized handling was one possibility among many rather than an obvious future standard. Eventually, however, palletization allowed for the greater standardization of handling and storage versus more specialized equipment required to handle particular items or materials.

The historical record includes H.T. Hallowell’s 1924 lift-truck platform patent and George Raymond’s 1937 patent for a double-faced pallet, but the broader development was incremental. Pallets evolved because successive users solved practical handling problems rather than because one inventor introduced the finished product.

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2. World War II Accelerates Palletization

By the late 1930s, the basic ingredients of palletized handling already existed. Forklift trucks were commercially available, pallets had been tested in industrial applications, and trade publications had documented their potential. Adoption nevertheless remained limited.

Then, the entry of the United States into World War II and the ensuing production requirements changed the economics. Military depots suddenly faced extraordinary increases in material volume at the same time that labor and equipment were constrained. The ability to assemble goods into unit loads, move them by forklift and stack them more efficiently became much more than an industrial improvement project.

The U.S. Quartermaster Corps tested palletized handling and increasingly standardized both equipment and pallet practices. Pallets were sent to nearby suppliers so goods could be palletized at origin rather than handled repeatedly after arrival at military depots. Pallet manufacturing itself was mechanized as demand grew.

The Pacific theater provided an even more demanding test. Long supply lines, difficult ports and the need to move materials rapidly from ships toward the fighting front demonstrated the value of keeping loads unitized through more of the transportation cycle. By the end of the war, palletized handling had moved from an interesting industrial practice toward a proven logistics system.

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3. The Four-Way Pallet Changes Handling Flexibility

One important wartime development involved a deceptively simple problem: a two-way pallet could only be approached conveniently from particular directions.

That limitation mattered in crowded warehouses, ship holds and other locations where forklift maneuverability was constrained. The development of the block-style four-way pallet allowed fork entry from any side, giving operators far greater flexibility in placing and retrieving loads.

Norman Cahners, a U.S. Navy officer associated with the material-handling work at Hingham, Massachusetts, is most commonly credited with the four-way pallet, although Milton O. Boone of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps was pursuing a similar concept during the same period.

Cahners referred to his design as an eight-way pallet because forks could also approach diagonally through the corners. The terminology did not endure, but four-way entry did.

The Hingham group also became important for another reason. It helped disseminate pallet-handling knowledge through Palletizer magazine, which covered pallet construction, forklift operation, strapping, stacking and other practical aspects of the emerging system. After the war, Cahners privatized the publication and renamed it Modern Materials Handling.

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A Change in Direction: The Invention of the Four-Way and Eight-Way Pallet

4. Postwar Expansion: From Wartime Tool to Industrial Infrastructure

World War II demonstrated that palletization worked at scale, but widespread civilian adoption still required changes in factories, warehouses, transportation and labor practices.

Military personnel returned to civilian industry with firsthand experience using forklifts and pallets. Surplus equipment and pallets became available, while companies that had adopted mechanized handling during wartime production retained many of those practices.

The economic argument also changed. Pallets were increasingly viewed not simply as pieces of packaging but as tools for reducing handling cost. Advocates stressed the value of considering cost per use rather than purchase price, an argument that can sound surprisingly contemporary when found in pallet discussions from the 1950s and early 1960s.

Adoption did not come smoothly. Labor organizations sometimes resisted palletization where mechanized handling threatened established work practices. Freight rules and transportation practices also had to adapt before palletized shipment could reach its potential.

By the 1960s, however, the pallet was increasingly embedded in manufacturing and distribution. Forklifts, warehouse racks, truck trailers and packaging systems evolved around palletized loads, making the pallet progressively harder to separate from the infrastructure surrounding it.

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5. Standardization Reshapes the Pallet

Early pallet users experimented with a remarkable variety of dimensions. Standardization became more valuable as pallets began moving beyond individual plants and interacting with common transportation and storage systems.

World War II accelerated that process within military logistics, where limiting the number of pallet sizes simplified equipment use, storage and pallet reuse. The same logic became increasingly important in civilian supply chains.

North America eventually converged heavily around the 48 × 40-inch footprint and the GMA pallet for grocery and fast-moving consumer goods, although many other industry-specific sizes remained important. In Europe, the 1200 × 800-mm Euro pallet became the foundation of a large exchange system.

Standardization produced network effects. Once warehouses, trailers, racking, packaging lines and handling equipment were designed around particular footprints, those pallet sizes became easier to source and more valuable in the secondary market. The infrastructure encouraged use of the pallet, while the installed pallet base encouraged further investment in compatible infrastructure.

Standard size did not mean identical construction, however, an issue that remains important today. Pallets sharing the same footprint can differ considerably in materials, components and performance.

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6. Pallet Pooling, Exchange and Reuse

The idea that pallets should circulate rather than travel once and disappear emerged early in the development of palletized handling.

Military organizations reused and redistributed pallets during World War II, and pallet-pooling proposals appeared almost immediately afterward. Sweden established an early pallet pool in the late 1940s, while European railway cooperation ultimately helped establish the Euro pallet exchange system.

Australia followed a different path. Material-handling equipment left behind following World War II became part of the Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool, or CHEP. Brambles acquired CHEP assets in 1958 and subsequently developed the operation into what became a global pallet-pooling business.

North America experimented with pooling as well, initially through pallet exchange programs where shippers dropped off loaded pallets and received empties in exchange. Over time, large secondary market for interchangeable 48 × 40-inch whitewood pallets evolved. The GMA system quickly became informal, versus formal systems that endured in Canada (the CPC program) and in Europe. Rental pooling later established a substantial presence, particularly in grocery and consumer packaged goods.

The fundamental problem remains recognizable: a durable reusable pallet creates value only when there is a practical mechanism for keeping it in circulation.

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7. New Materials Expand the Pallet Market

Wood established an early advantage because it was readily available, relatively inexpensive, repairable and easily fabricated in many sizes. As palletized handling matured, however, users began looking for alternatives that could address particular shortcomings or specialized applications.

Metal pallets found roles where durability, fire characteristics or heavy-duty performance justified their additional weight and cost. Processed and molded wood created opportunities for consistent, nestable pallets. Corrugated and other paper-based pallets addressed applications where low weight and one-way shipment were important.

Plastic pallets began appearing commercially by the 1960s. Manufacturers experimented with thermoforming, injection molding, structural foam, rotational molding and other processes, while early applications included automotive manufacturing, food processing and pharmaceuticals.

Plastic never displaced wood across the overall pallet market, but the technology continued to evolve alongside supply-chain requirements. Improved resins, structural reinforcement, better molding techniques, nestable configurations, automation-compatible designs and recycled materials expanded the applications in which plastic could offer a compelling alternative.

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8. From Shipping Platform to Managed Supply Chain Asset

Another important historical change has involved how companies think about the pallet itself.

Early pallets were primarily handling devices. As reusable and pooled systems grew, the pallet increasingly became an asset that had to be controlled, recovered, inspected, repaired and redeployed. Large secondary pallet markets likewise developed around the recovery and repair of common wood pallet sizes.

That shift encouraged new business models. Pallet recyclers developed extensive collection and repair networks. Commercial poolers assumed responsibility for fleets containing millions of reusable pallets. Specialized pallet-management companies coordinated procurement, recovery and repair across multiple facilities.

Information technology added another layer. Barcodes and RFID made individual or batch identification easier, while more recent IoT technologies can provide information about location, movement, dwell time and environmental conditions.

At the same time, warehouse automation has renewed interest in pallet condition and consistency. What began as a simple platform beneath a load increasingly interacts with sensors, conveyors, pallet shuttles, AS/RS equipment and autonomous handling systems.

The pallet has not ceased to be a physical handling platform, but in some supply chains it has also become part of the information and automation infrastructure.

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9. Pallet History Resources

RPN’s historical coverage draws on trade publications, patents, military documentation, industry interviews and previous pallet histories. Readers who want to go deeper may find these resources useful.

Pallet History Series

Books

Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Palletized Handling 1922–1945 brings together historical research and period material on the formative decades of palletized handling, including the rapid changes associated with World War II.

Pallets: A North American Perspective provides a broader history of pallet development, manufacturing, materials, recycling, pooling and pallet management alongside practical discussion of the modern pallet industry.

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