Pallet Styles for Retail and 3PL
Retail and third-party logistics run mixed freight on the common footprint. They ask whether the pallet runs on their conveyor, whether it nests and which rating covers the rack.
Mixed freight, one footprint
Warehouses that serve many customers handle many loads on 48 x 40 in pallets. Mixed cases rewrap often, so the deck type matters, and the choice is between a pallet that stacks full and one that nests empty. A 3PL that returns pallets to customers counts both.
Nelson Company's 4.8 in pallet works with automation and most roller conveyors, which suits high-throughput centres. Its multi-use rating, 10,500 lb static and 3,100 lb dynamic with 2,700 lb racking, covers floor, forks and beams at modest figures.
Choosing between styles
| Need | Style | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Conveyors and automation | Short multi-use, cruciform or runner base | Entry and fit |
| Rack storage | Rackable or multi-use with a racking load | Span |
| Lots of returns | Nestable | Racking rating |
| Heavy stacks | Stackable | Creep |
| Pallets to return | Nelson Company Nestable, stackable, rackable (1,800 per trailer) | Rehrig Pacific Standard-duty nestable (1,260 per trailer) | Rackable (540 per trailer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 5,000 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
Questions for the maker
- Does it run on your conveyor?
- What racking load and span?
- What is the increment for returns?
- Is the deck open or closed?
How tall the empties stand
Stack height is the other half of the return leg. For the Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestable, a stack of 4 stands 14.15 in and a stack of 22 stands 60.05 in, against 143.0 in un-nested.
| Pallets in the stack | Nested height, in | Un-nested height, in | Saved, in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 14.15 | 26.0 | 11.85 |
| 7 | 21.80 | 45.5 | 23.70 |
| 10 | 29.45 | 65.0 | 35.55 |
| 13 | 37.10 | 84.5 | 47.40 |
| 16 | 44.75 | 104.0 | 59.25 |
| 19 | 52.40 | 123.5 | 71.10 |
| 22 | 60.05 | 143.0 | 82.95 |
A beam load worked out
Take a pallet with a 2,200 lb racking load. A loaded pallet of 1,158 lb uses 52.6 percent of it and leaves 1,042 lb; one of 2,776 lb is 576 lb over. Rack engineers also apply their own safety margins, so treat the figure as a ceiling.
| Loaded pallet, lb | Share of the racking load | Left over, lb | Within the rating? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,158 | 52.6 percent | 1,042 | yes |
| 1,361 | 61.9 percent | 839 | yes |
| 1,564 | 71.1 percent | 636 | yes |
| 1,867 | 84.9 percent | 333 | yes |
| 2,170 | 98.6 percent | 30 | yes |
| 2,373 | 107.9 percent | -173 | no |
| 2,776 | 126.2 percent | -576 | no |
Words on this page
- GMA pallet
- The 48 by 40 inch North American standard, named for the Grocery Manufacturers Association that popularised it.
- Runner
- A continuous rail under a pallet. Runners lie flat across rack beams but stop pallets from nesting.
- Stretch wrap
- Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.
- HDPE
- High-density polyethylene, a tough resin used in many plastic pallets, valued for strength against its weight.
- Pallet pooling
- A rental model where a company owns the pallets and moves them between customers, instead of each customer buying its own.
- Static load
- The weight a pallet holds while standing still on a flat floor, spread evenly across the deck. It is the highest of the three ratings.
- Recycled content
- The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.
- Cube utilisation
- How well loaded freight fills the volume of a trailer or container. Taller or wider-than-floor pallets waste cube.
Tell us the footprint and how many stacks you move.
We work out the empty trailer, then take the request for a load.