Guide: Why standard-duty nestables are not rackable

What the sheets say

All three show 10,000 lb static. Only one lists a racking load. A buyer who reads the first number sees three equal pallets; a buyer who reads the third column sees one that is fit for a rack and two that are not rated for one.

Why the design differs

A nestable has hollow legs and a deck shaped to let the next pallet sit inside the first. Those features save height and weight, and they remove the continuous rails a rack wants under the deck. The rackable carries more material, weighs 44.2 lb against 26.5 lb for the standard-duty, and gives up the nest: 540 on a trailer against 1,260.

That is 18 lb of extra pallet weight to buy a rating. For a rack-bound pallet the trade is right. For a floor-and-forklift loop it is a cost without a benefit.

What to do if your pallets go on a rack

1. Ask the maker for a racking load for the exact model and the beam span.
2. If there is none, pick a model that prints one.
3. If you must use an unrated pallet, ask a rack engineer. Do not use the static number.

A beam load worked out

Take a pallet with a 2,700 lb racking load. A loaded pallet of 806 lb uses 29.9 percent of it and leaves 1,894 lb; one of 2,424 lb is 276 lb under. Rack engineers also apply their own safety margins, so treat the figure as a ceiling.

A stack worked out

Take a stackable rated 30,000 lb static. The bottom pallet carries the pallets above it, so with each loaded pallet weighing 2,503 lb it can hold 11 above, a stack of 12. With 6,545 lb per pallet it can hold 4 above. This is a ceiling on a flat floor for a still stack, not a promise for a stack that moves or waits.

Trailers for your volume

Suppose 2,040 empty pallets come back in a month. At the maker figures on file that is 2 trailers of Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestables (1,200 each), 1 of PHS Plastic's EXP 100 (2,340 each) or 4 of a rackable (540 each). The table runs the same sum for 6 volumes, from 2,040 to 10,680.

Questions to put to the maker

• Is the pallets-per-trailer number for nested empties, or for loaded pallets?
• Is there a version of the model with a lower nest increment, and what does it give up?
• Where on the pallet is the model name moulded, so a returned stack can be matched to its sheet?

From the dock

• Hollow legs collect meltwater and grit; a rinse before nesting keeps stacks from sticking together.
• A trailer loaded to the roof is limited by cube, not weight, which is why empties are priced by the trailer.

Words on this page

Nest increment

The extra height each additional empty pallet adds to a nested stack, measured in inches. A small increment means a short stack.

Dynamic load

The weight a pallet holds while it is moved by a forklift, pallet jack or conveyor. It is lower than static because motion adds shock.

Stretch wrap

Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.

Recycled content

The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.

Pallet pooling

A rental model where a company owns the pallets and moves them between customers, instead of each customer buying its own.

Nest ratio

How many empty pallets fit in the height of one: pallet height divided by nest increment.

GMA pallet

The 48 by 40 inch North American standard, named for the Grocery Manufacturers Association that popularised it.

Cube utilisation

How well loaded freight fills the volume of a trailer or container. Taller or wider-than-floor pallets waste cube.