Shipping pallet sizes, and why the dimensions cost more than the wood

Pallet dimensions look like a procurement detail and behave like a rate input. The footprint decides how the freight loads, the height decides whether anything can go above it, and the greatest measurement in each direction is what the rate is built from. Here is what the sizes actually do.

Why one footprint dominates

The common North American footprint became common because everything else was built around it: trailer widths, warehouse racking, forklift and pallet jack fork spreads, and the way two units sit side by side across a trailer. A pallet on that footprint is a shape every part of the network already handles without thinking. That is its whole advantage, and it is a real one.

Odd sizes are allowed, and they cost differently

Nothing prevents shipping on a different footprint, and plenty of industries do it for good reasons. What changes is how the unit loads: a footprint that does not pair across a trailer wastes the space beside it, and that space is charged to somebody. Racking and jack compatibility at the destination is a separate question again, and one worth asking the receiver rather than assuming.

Height is the dimension people forget

A pallet that can be topped shares its vertical space with another shipment. A pallet too tall to top occupies the full height of the trailer position whatever it weighs, and is rated accordingly, because density prices space as well as weight. This is why an extra layer that pushes a stack past what can be loaded above it can cost more than the layer is worth, and why the flat top described in the article on building a pallet is an economic point rather than a tidiness one.

Measure the shipment, not the pallet

The figures that belong on a bill of lading are the greatest length, greatest width and greatest height of the whole assembled unit: the pallet, the load, the wrap and anything protruding. Not the nominal size of the pallet you bought. Not the size of the cartons. Measured at the extremes, rounded up rather than down. This is the number the carrier will take with its own equipment, and the two should agree. The classification side is on the class and dimensions page.

Two half pallets are not automatically better than one

Splitting a load across two shorter units sometimes helps, when a single stack would otherwise be too tall to top. Often it does not, because handling units are counted as well as measured and two pieces occupy two positions, which is one more entry on the list of what decides a pallet’s shipping cost. Each unit also needs its own base, its own wrap and its own labels, and each is a separate opportunity for the network to handle something badly. It is a question worth asking at quoting time rather than deciding at the dock with the wrap already on.

Block and stringer pallets take forks differently

A stringer pallet is designed to be entered from two sides; a block pallet takes forks from all four. Where the receiving end is tight, or where a pallet jack has to approach from whichever side the door allows, four way entry is the difference between the unit being moved and the unit being wrestled. It is a small specification decision at origin and a practical problem at destination.

What we ask for and why

Outside dimensions of the assembled unit, actual scale weight, whether the top is flat and whether anything overhangs. Those four answers let a quote be built on the shipment that will actually arrive at the terminal, which is the only version of a quote that survives contact with it. The rest of the list is on the article on quoting.