A pallet is a portable platform used to assemble products into a unit load for storage, handling and transportation. Pallets allow cartons, bags, drums, containers and other goods to be moved efficiently by forklift, pallet jack, conveyor or automated handling equipment. Most pallets are made from wood or plastic, although metal, corrugated and molded wood-fiber designs are also used.
Few pieces of transport packaging are as familiar as the pallet. It is a simple platform, but one that fundamentally changed the way products are stored, handled and shipped.
Instead of handling products individually, hundreds or even thousands of pounds of goods can be assembled into a single unit load and moved in one operation.
Pallets are also among the most widely reused forms of transport packaging. Some circulate repeatedly within a single company, others move through rental or exchange pools, while many wood pallets continue through repair and resale networks after their original shipment has been completed.
This article provides an overview of pallets within reusable transport packaging. For much deeper coverage of pallet design, history, standards, markets and handling, visit the Packaging Revolution Pallets Hub. For answers to practical questions about pallet damage, load stability, ISPM 15, storage and safe reuse, visit our Pallet Problems resource.
From Shipping Platform to Reusable Logistics Asset
Pallets emerged in the early 20th century alongside forklifts and other forms of mechanized materials handling. Their adoption accelerated during World War II as military logisticians looked for faster ways to move enormous volumes of supplies through warehouses, ports and depots. Pallets and lift trucks effectively evolved together, with each increasing the usefulness of the other.
The wartime experience also demonstrated the value of recovering and reusing pallets. Early pooling concepts emerged as organizations tried to avoid repeatedly producing shipping platforms for one-way movements. After the war, rental, exchange and closed-loop systems expanded along with palletized handling itself.
Today, the basic principle remains unchanged. The pallet forms the base of a unit load, while stretch wrap, strapping, shrink film or reusable wraps, straps and nets can help secure the product above it.
What has changed is the range of environments in which that unit load must perform. Pallets now move through conventional warehouses, high-speed conveyors, automated storage and retrieval systems, robotic cells, cold storage, food plants, manufacturing operations, ocean containers and retail distribution networks. A pallet that works well in one of those environments may be a poor choice in another.
Wood, Plastic, Metal and Other Pallet Materials
Wood remains the dominant pallet material because it combines strength, availability, relatively low initial cost and repairability. A damaged deckboard or stringer can often be replaced rather than retiring the complete pallet, and an active repair market helps keep enormous numbers of wood pallets in circulation.
That repairability also makes the line between a reusable and expendable wood pallet less clear than it first appears. A pallet originally purchased for a single shipment may subsequently be recovered, repaired, resold and used many more times. At the other end of the spectrum, heavy-duty wood pallets can be deliberately engineered for repeated use in a captive fleet or pallet pool.
Plastic pallets occupy a smaller share of the overall market but are well established where cleanliness, dimensional consistency, moisture resistance or long service life are important. They can be washed, contain no nails or wood splinters and are not subject to ISPM 15 phytosanitary treatment requirements. Their consistency can also be attractive in automated handling systems.
The tradeoff is usually higher initial cost. Plastic becomes easier to justify when the pallet remains in a managed loop long enough to complete many trips. Our guide to the benefits of plastic pallets looks more closely at those applications.
Metal pallets, usually steel or aluminum, serve more specialized applications requiring exceptional strength, fire resistance, durability or compatibility with demanding industrial processes. Automotive, military and chemical applications are among the markets where metal pallets can make sense, although weight and cost generally limit their use as a general-purpose shipping platform.
Paper, corrugated and molded wood-fiber pallets fill another niche. Their low weight and exemption from ISPM 15 requirements can make them useful for export, air freight and other applications where recovery is unlikely or transportation weight has a high cost. Molded presswood pallets can also nest when empty, reducing storage and shipping volume.
Material choice should not be made independently of the intended system. A lower-cost pallet that disappears after one trip may be exactly the right choice for an uncontrolled export lane. The same pallet could be unnecessarily wasteful in a closed loop where a more durable asset can make dozens or hundreds of turns.
Pallet Construction, Access and Size
Material is only one part of pallet selection. Structural design determines how a pallet can be handled, supported and stored.
Stringer pallets use longitudinal structural members beneath the deck. Traditional unnotched stringer pallets provide forklift entry from two ends, while notched stringers permit additional side entry by forklifts. Depending on the design, pallet jack access from the sides may be restricted.
Block pallets use blocks between the top and bottom deck structures, typically providing full four-way entry for forklifts and pallet jacks. Their handling flexibility has helped make block designs common in large pooling systems and other high-throughput operations.
Pallets may also be single-faced or double-faced, reversible or non-reversible. Bottom deck configuration can become particularly important when pallets travel on conveyors, are stored in racks or interact with automated equipment.
Size matters for many of the same reasons. The 48 x 40-inch footprint is the most familiar pallet size in North American grocery and consumer goods distribution, but it is far from the only one. Automotive, chemical, beverage, appliance and other industries use different footprints, while international markets have their own established sizes.
There are also six ISO-recognized pallet footprints, reflecting the reality that no single dimension became universal worldwide. Rather than reproduce the complete dimensional discussion here, see our Standard Pallet Sizes Guide for North American and international dimensions.
Reusable Pallets, Closed Loops and Pooling
The question of reuse is less about what a pallet is made from than what happens after it is unloaded.
In a closed-loop system, pallets move between known shipping and receiving points and are returned for another cycle. The loop might connect two plants owned by the same company, a supplier and customer, or several facilities within a managed network. Because recovery is predictable, companies can invest in more durable pallets and spread that higher initial cost over repeated trips.
Pallet pooling extends the same principle across multiple users. Rather than every shipper buying and recovering its own pallet fleet, a pool operator owns or manages the assets and coordinates their movement, inspection, repair and redistribution.
CHEP and PECO are familiar rental pool examples in North America, while Europe has long supported large exchange and pooling networks. Pooling can provide shippers with access to a standardized pallet without requiring them to manage every individual asset themselves.
The economics depend heavily on turns. Purchase price tells only part of the story. Cost per trip is influenced by service life, repair expense, loss rate, transportation required to recover empties, handling cost and how quickly pallets complete the cycle.
A very durable pallet can still be a poor investment if it spends months sitting at customer locations or regularly disappears from the network. Conversely, a relatively expensive pallet can become economical when it turns quickly and reliably for years.
That is why pallet management belongs alongside pallet design. Tracking, recovery discipline and visibility into dwell time can matter just as much as deck thickness or material selection.
Automation Is Raising Pallet Expectations
Manual lift truck operations can tolerate a surprising amount of pallet variation. Experienced operators routinely compensate for minor damage, protruding boards or pallets that are not perfectly square. Automated systems are less forgiving.
Conveyors, automated storage and retrieval systems, automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots and robotic handling equipment depend on predictable geometry and reliable interfaces. Excessive deflection, damaged bottom boards, loose components or dimensional inconsistency can interrupt material flow.
This does not mean automation automatically favors one pallet material. Wood, plastic and other pallet types can all be engineered for automated environments. It does mean that pallet quality and inspection become increasingly important as manual intervention is removed.
Reusable pallets can have an advantage because the economics of a managed fleet support investment in higher specifications, inspection and maintenance. A pallet that repeatedly travels through the same automated network can be designed specifically around that system rather than around the minimum requirements of a one-way shipment.
Asset tracking is developing alongside automation. Barcodes, RFID and other technologies can help locate pallets, record movements and identify assets that have stopped circulating. The pallet is an obvious carrier for supply chain visibility because it physically travels beneath the goods through much of their journey.
Choosing the Right Pallet
Pallet selection starts with the load, but it should not end there. Product weight and dimensions determine basic capacity requirements, while handling equipment, racking, conveyors and automation influence construction and bottom-deck design. Hygiene, export requirements, fire codes and environmental exposure can further narrow the options.
The intended logistics loop then changes the economic calculation. Where pallet recovery is uncertain, low initial cost and easy disposition may dominate the decision. Where assets can be reliably returned, durability, repairability and cost per trip become much more important.
The best pallet is therefore not necessarily the lightest, strongest, cheapest or longest-lasting design. It is the pallet that performs reliably through the complete unit-load system at an acceptable cost over the number of trips the supply chain can realistically deliver.
That system perspective also matters environmentally. A heavier pallet that remains in productive use for years may consume less material per trip than a lighter alternative replaced repeatedly. Reuse only delivers its full benefit, however, when the pallet actually comes back.
For more detailed coverage of wood and plastic pallets, design, standards, pooling, history and pallet handling, continue to the Packaging Revolution Pallets Hub. If you have a specific question to solve, our Pallet Problems: Answers to Common Pallet Questions covers pallet damage, repair, ISPM 15, load stability, storage, markings and safe reuse.
Have a pallet problem we haven’t covered? Send us your question. We may answer it directly or use it as the basis for a future Pallet Problems article.
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.
