PALLETS
This week I hauled a load of plastic pallets from Fremont, OH to Eagan, MN. My next load was a load of 
wooden pallets from Hugo, MN to Green Bay, WI. It got me thinking about pallets. Seems like a simple thing, right? Well, the National Wood Pallet and Container Association published a 72 page guideline to wooden pallets and containers. The wood pallet industry is about a $7 billion annual industry. There are about 2 billion pallets in circulation and we build or repair about 500,000,000 wooden pallets every year.
I am a 3rd generation warehouseman and I thought I knew a lot about pallets. The standard GMA pallet is 40” x 48” or 13.2 square feet. Pallets came into existence sometime around 1887 when the first pallet jack was invented, but gained popularity in the 20s with the invention of the forklift. Before forklifts warehouses were multi story. With the invention of the forklift most warehouses became single story with 18-24 foot ceilings. Wooden pallets comprise about 91% of the industry. Plastic pallets are slowly gaining in popularity and comprise about 5% of the market. The other 4% is 
a mix of disposable cardboard pallets and metal pallets.
We can load 26 pallets straight in with a 53 foot trailer. 28 will fit if you pinwheel them. If you put them all in sideways 30 will fit. It is customary to put at least the last two straight in. That makes it easier to unload. Pallets last longer if they are loaded straight in. They can also be unloaded with pallet jacks if they are loaded straight in. Although pallet jacks seem to tear up the pallets. We have all seen pieces of wood laying in the trailer after a hurried worker has unloaded it. That helps keep all the those pallet builders and recyclers in business.
The average life to first repair of a white wooden pallet is about 4 uses. Those blue chep pallets might last up to 30 uses before first repair and a plastic pallet should last about 100 uses. Prices vary. CHEP pallets are rented. The wooden pallets sell new for about $15. Plastic pallets have a wide variance, but average about $40. Wooden pallets weigh about 40 pounds. Blue pallets are about 60 pounds. Plastic pallets are about 15 pounds.
Plastic pallets have obvious advantages over wooden pallets. They weigh less and last longer. They are 
washable. There per usage cost before first repair is significantly less than the average white wooden pallet. The problem is, who pays for them. I remember back in the 1980s when I delivered and unloaded floor loads of paper products the shipper charged the consignee $12 a piece for pallets. It was cheaper to pay the driver to hand unload the product on to the consignee's pallets than to ship the product on pallets.
Labor savings is the trade off for the price of pallets. More and more market pressure has been brought to bear on drivers' time as well. The “driver shortage” is good for the pallet industry. It also saves the consignee unloading time. We see fewer slip sheet loads than we did in the past. Even before recycling the pallet cost of a load is less than than $100. That is less than the consignees' labor cost plus drivers' time. That pallet that we see is the tip of a large industry. While the pallet itself is simple (unless you read that 72 page guide). It is also a huge part of the logistics industry, is here to stay and is steadily growing.