Nesting plastic pallets and nest ratio

Two ways to say the same thing

The nest increment is a height: how many inches each extra pallet adds. Nest ratio is the count: how many empties fit in the height of one pallet. For a 6.5 in pallet with a 2.55 in increment, the ratio is about 2.5 to 1. Small increment, high ratio. Use whichever your maker prints; they are one number seen from two sides.

The ratio is not the same as pallets per stack. Pallets per stack depends on how tall a stack the maker allows. PHS Plastic prints 78 per stack for one model and 40 for another, and Nelson Company prints about 60 for its multi-use model. The ratio tells you how short an empty stack is; the per-stack figure tells you where the maker stops.

From ratio to trailers

Multiply stacks by pallets per stack and you get the per-trailer figure. At 30 stacks, 60 per stack gives 1,800 and 78 gives 2,340. The 40-per-stack model at 1,260 works out to 31.5 stacks, so the maker's figure is evidently built on a different stacking pattern than 30; that is why we draw the plan but print the maker's number.

What a better ratio costs

The pallets with the best ratios are often lighter. A thinner section nests tighter and weighs less, and also carries less. PHS lists a model rated 15,000 lb static at 40 per stack, and a lighter one at 78. If your pallet carries 10,000 lb, you are choosing between ratio and rating, and the right pick is the lowest rating that safely clears your load.

Trailers for your volume

Suppose 3,220 empty pallets come back in a month. At the maker figures on file that is 3 trailers of Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestables (1,200 each), 2 of PHS Plastic's EXP 100 (2,340 each) or 6 of a rackable (540 each). The table runs the same sum for 6 volumes, from 3,220 to 16,930.

Questions to put to the maker

• Is the pallets-per-trailer number for nested empties, or for loaded pallets?
• Does a nested stack need a strap or wrap to ship, and who supplies it?
• Does the nest figure change with the deck type, open or closed?
• Do the legs ever jam when pallets are nested warm and then cold?
• Where on the pallet is the model name moulded, so a returned stack can be matched to its sheet?
• How many empties can stand in one nested stack before the stack leans?
• Is the nest increment measured on a new pallet, or one that has been in service?
• Is there a version of the model with a lower nest increment, and what does it give up?

From the dock

• Hollow legs collect meltwater and grit; a rinse before nesting keeps stacks from sticking together.
• Nesting pays only when pallets come back. A one-way shipment gains nothing from a deep nest except cheaper freight out.
• Forklift operators prefer stacks that stand square to the tines; a leaning stack gets re-stacked by hand.
• A pallet that nests well but cracks at the corner after a season is not a bargain; ask for the service record.
• Warehouses with low ceilings find nested stacks fit under sprinkler lines that tall un-nested stacks would hit.
• Count empties by stack height against a mark on the wall, not pallet by pallet, and the tally takes seconds.
• Return legs are often the cheapest freight a carrier hauls, which is why closed loops lean on the nest figure.

Words on this page

Stretch wrap

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

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.

Cube utilisation

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

Recycled content

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

UL

Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.

GMA pallet

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

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.

HDPE

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