What Is a Pallet

Why Do Shippers Put Goods on Pallets?

Shippers palletise goods so the consignment moves as 1 unit by forklift instead of carton by carton by hand. This cuts handling at every collection, hub and delivery point, and it cuts the damage that comes with each touch.

A consignment of 40 loose cartons is handled 40 times at collection. It is handled again at each transit hub and once more at the receiver's dock. The same cartons stretch-wrapped onto one pallet need 1 forklift lift per stop, and the receiver signs for one unit instead of counting boxes.

The pallet also fixes how the consignment is stored and booked. Warehouses allocate space by pallet position. Road carriers plan trailer floor by pallet footprint, so a palletised load has a known size before it leaves the collection address.

The raised deck adds a practical layer of protection, keeping cartons off wet dock floors and clear of fork tips. How well a pallet does all of this comes down to its construction.

What Are the Parts of a Pallet?

A pallet has 3 structural parts: the top deck that carries the goods, the bottom deck that sits on the floor, and the blocks or stringers between them that create the fork openings.

On a wooden pallet, the top deck is a row of boards. Plastic and presswood pallets use a single moulded surface instead. The bottom deck spreads the weight across conveyor rollers and racking beams and stops the pallet rocking on an uneven dock floor.

The middle layer decides the design. Block pallets stand on separate blocks: 9 on a Euro pallet, set in 3 rows of 3. Stringer pallets run on 3 continuous timber beams along their length. European freight runs on block pallets, while the North American 48 × 40 inch GMA pallet is a stringer design.

The Euro pallet is assembled from 11 boards and 9 blocks with 78 nails in a fixed pattern. That standard build is why a Euro pallet loaded in Antwerp handles the same way on a forklift in Milan.

The middle layer also controls how many sides a forklift can enter.

What Is the Difference Between a 2-Way and a 4-Way Pallet?

A 2-way pallet accepts forks from 2 opposite sides only. A 4-way pallet accepts forks from all 4 sides, which gives the driver more options at the dock and inside the trailer.

Stringer pallets are 2-way, because the beams close the long sides. Notched stringers let forklift tines enter from the side, but a hand pallet truck still needs the 2 open ends.

Block pallets are full 4-way units. A driver places Euro pallets 3 abreast in a trailer without turning each one, and a warehouse forklift picks from whichever side faces the aisle.

Design sets access. Material sets strength, hygiene and the export treatment a pallet needs.

What Are Pallets Made Of?

Pallets are made of solid wood, plastic, presswood, metal or corrugated board. The material sets the load the pallet carries, its tare weight, its purchase price and whether it needs treatment before export.

Solid wood is the standard for European road freight and the material of every Euro pallet. Spruce, pine and fir are the standard timbers. A broken board is replaced rather than scrapping the pallet, and a pallet at the end of its life is chipped for board production.

Plastic pallets go where hygiene is audited: food, drink and pharmaceutical supply chains. They take washing and disinfection, cost more than wood and cannot be repaired once cracked.

Presswood pallets are pressed from wood fibres and resin under heat. They nest when empty, which keeps return loads small, and the pressing process leaves no live pests.

Metal pallets carry the heaviest loads and stay inside closed loops between fixed sites, such as a component plant feeding an assembly line.

Corrugated board is the lightest option. It carries 300 to 700 kg depending on board grade and loses strength in rain, so it suits light, dry, one-way consignments.

Wire mesh pallets, sandwich pallets and CP chemical pallets (CP1 to CP9) complete the pallet specification glossary, each built around 1 load type: loose small parts, double-deck stability, or drums and bagged chemicals.

Material decides strength. Footprint decides how the pallet fits trucks and racking.

What Size Is a Standard Pallet in Europe?

The standard European pallet measures 1200 × 800 mm, the footprint of the EPAL Euro pallet. Industrial, half and quarter pallets extend or divide that base for heavier, smaller and display loads.

The Euro pallet dimensions of 1200 × 800 × 144 mm match the 2.4 m inner trailer width exactly, with 3 pallets standing side by side on their short edge. 2 half pallets or 4 quarter pallets cover the surface of 1 Euro pallet, so mixed loads stay on one grid.

ISO 6780 recognises 6 pallet footprints worldwide. One of them is the North American 1219 × 1016 mm (48 × 40 inch) size, which fits only 2 abreast in a European trailer and leaves floor width unused.

Footprint fixes the floor area. The load rating fixes the weight that area accepts.

How Much Weight Can a Pallet Hold?

An EPAL Euro pallet carries a safe working load of 1,500 kg and supports up to 4,000 kg of stacked load on a flat, solid floor. Both figures apply to an undamaged pallet with the weight spread evenly.

Pallet capacity is rated in 3 positions:

• Dynamic load: the weight carried while the pallet moves on forks or a pallet truck.
• Static load: the weight carried while the pallet stands on a flat floor, including pallets stacked above it.
• Racking load: the weight carried while the pallet spans 2 racking beams with no centre support. This is the hardest test for any pallet.

Uneven or point loads cut the Euro pallet's working limit to 1,000 kg, because the weight presses on single boards and blocks instead of the whole deck.

The pallet's own weight goes on the booking too. An empty Euro pallet weighs about 25 kg, and that counts toward the consignment weight declared to the carrier. Plastic pallets vary by model, so their tare weight comes from the manufacturer's data sheet.

Weight and footprint together become the space unit that European carriers use to plan trailers.

How Are Pallets Measured in European Road Freight?

European road freight measures pallets in loading metres (LDM): the length of trailer floor a load occupies across the full 2.4 m width. LDM equals length × width ÷ 2.4, with both dimensions in metres.

A 13.6 m semi-trailer carries 33 Euro pallets 3 abreast, or 26 industrial pallets 2 abreast, in a single layer.

At 0.2 LDM, the half pallet dimensions of 800 × 600 mm suit retail and display orders too small to fill a Euro pallet base.

A pallet with a flat, firm top travels stacked and uses half the floor space per pallet. A tapered, fragile or uneven load blocks the space above it and is booked as non-stackable. Overhang has a similar cost: cartons that extend past the deck edges widen the real footprint and take the first knock during loading.

After unloading, the pallet itself still needs an owner.

What Happens to a Pallet After Delivery?

A delivered pallet ends in 1 of 3 ways: the receiver keeps it, it goes back to its owner, or it is swapped for an equal pallet at the delivery point.

A one-way pallet stays with the receiver, who reuses, recycles or scraps it. Export lanes use one-way pallets where a return trip costs more than the pallet itself.

A returnable pallet belongs to the sender or a pooling company and is collected after each trip.

An exchange pallet is swapped like for like at delivery. The EPAL open pool counts more than 600 million Euro pallets, which keeps that swap working across borders.

Ownership after delivery decides who carries the pallet cost, and that difference makes one-way, returnable and exchange pallets 3 separate entries in any glossary of logistics terms.

Wooden pallets leaving the EU face one further rule, set by plant health law.

What Is ISPM 15 and Which Pallets Need It?

ISPM 15 is the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) standard that requires solid wood packaging, pallets included, to be pest-treated before it moves in international trade. It covers solid wood thicker than 6 mm.

Heat treatment holds the wood core at 56 °C for at least 30 minutes. The EU bans methyl bromide fumigation, so European pallet producers rely on heat.

A treated pallet carries the IPPC mark, burned or stamped onto the blocks. The mark shows the wheat-ear symbol, the 2-letter country code, the producer's registration number and the treatment code, such as HT for heat treatment.

Presswood, plastic, metal and corrugated board pallets fall outside ISPM 15, because processing removes the pest risk or the material carries none. That exemption makes presswood a practical choice for one-way exports.

Treatment rules complete the technical checks. The last step is matching a pallet to the goods.

How Do You Choose the Right Pallet?

The right pallet fits 4 values in the consignment: gross weight, footprint, stackability and destination.

• Gross weight: a load near the 1,500 kg Euro pallet rating needs a heavy-duty pallet or a split across 2 pallets.
• Footprint: every carton sits inside the deck edges, with no overhang.
• Stackability: a flat, rigid top lets the pallet travel stacked, which uses less trailer floor.
• Destination: exports leaving the EU need ISPM 15 wood or an exempt material, and exchange-pool lanes need EPAL pallets.

A booking with a pallet courier from Belgium lists these 4 values, because the carrier assigns trailer floor and stacking positions from them.

With the pallet chosen, the remaining step is matching it to a carrier and route.