Nestable Pallets, 48 x 48 in Footprint

What rides on a 48 x 48 in pallet

• Chemicals and drums
• Four 55-gallon drums with no overhang
• Dense liquids in totes where a square base is steadier

A 48 x 48 in pallet exists for drums. Four 55-gallon drums sit on it without overhanging, which a 48 x 40 in pallet cannot do. PHS Plastic lists a 48 x 48 in stackable, the STK 207, at 4,000 lb dynamic and 30,000 lb static.

The square footprint is also steadier under a concentrated load. If the load sits on four points, a square base spreads the corners evenly, and the rating sheet should say whether it assumes that.

Shape and size

• Perimeter: 192.0 in (4,876 mm).
• Diagonal corner to corner: 67.9 in (1,724 mm), which is the room a pallet needs to turn in an aisle.
• Area: 1.486 square metres, 16.00 square feet.
• Aspect: the long side is 1.000 times the short side, so the deck is square.

In practice

The square shape does two jobs. It lets four round drums sit in a 2 by 2 block with their rims inside the deck, and it makes a pallet that can be picked up from any of its four sides with the same footing. A rectangular pallet gives forks a long and a short direction; a square gives them none, which helps in a busy chemical store.

What the square does not do is nest more or weigh less. A larger deck means more plastic, and a pallet that must carry a concentrated drum load tends to be built stout. Count the empty return with the maker's figure before assuming a nestable in this size will behave like the common one.

A practical check is to place four empty drums on a sample pallet and look at the rims: if they sit inside the deck with a finger of clearance, the pallet suits drums, and if they touch the edge, the load will catch on every rack post it passes.

Against its nearest footprints

The table orders the closest four by area. A 48 x 48 in pallet is 2,304 sq in; the nearest listed footprint differs by 144 sq in. Footprint is the choice the container makes for you, and a small difference in area is a large difference to a rack beam or a drum.

Counting the empty trailer

Few makers print per-stack or per-trailer figures for a 48 x 48 in nestable, so this site does not invent them. Ask for the two numbers, enter them in the calculator under another footprint, and the trailers follow.

As an illustration of the arithmetic only: if a maker printed 1,500 per trailer, 2,400 returning pallets would need 2 trailers, 5,000 would need 4, and 10,880 would need 8. Use the maker's real figure, not this one.

48 x 48 in against every other footprint

Questions for the maker

• Static and dynamic with four drums as the load
• Whether the deck has a lip or a drip edge for a spill
• Fire listing for a chemical store

From the dock

• Return legs are often the cheapest freight a carrier hauls, which is why closed loops lean on the nest figure.
• Nesting pays only when pallets come back. A one-way shipment gains nothing from a deep nest except cheaper freight out.

Words on this page

HDPE

High-density polyethylene, a tough resin used in many plastic pallets, valued for strength against its weight.

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.