Could Your Business Use 40×40 Wooden Pallets?

Why can 40×40 wooden pallets save you space and money? It all comes down to fitting the products you ship to the same size pallet on which it is stacked, which for many companies is not a standard 48×40 pallet.

If you buy pallets for your company, have you measured the dimensions of your product after it has been stacked on pallets ready to be shipped? Many businesses pick up the phone and order the usual standard 48×40 pallets simply because they are the most popular and familiar size.

However I notice that many companies have shipments ready to be loaded onto semi trailers in which the product does not match the dimensions of a standard pallet, but could instead be stacked onto 40×40 wooden pallets. How can this be saving companies money?

Three reasons:

1. When loading a 53′ trailer with standard size pallets in the normal way, a max of 24 pallets will fill the trailer unless some of the pallets are loaded sideways creating more floor space by using more width than length. The downside of that is only a forklift can load or unload 4way pallets from the side…pallet hand jacks will not work. With 40×40 wooden pallets they can be loaded the normal way and there will still be more space left.

2. If the product is shorter than the pallet, then the product risks shifting, leaning, or falling over during transit if the brakes are applied too hard causing a sudden stop. When product is allowed to rest against each other, they support each other and create a tighter fit.

3. If companies are shipping light weight products on pallets too large, they could be incurring extra and unnecessary weight causing the cost of freight charges to be higher.

So take a few seconds and grab a tape measure to see exactly what the dimensions are of your freight, then order pallets to fit that size.  In many cases you will be able to save money on non-standard sizes  such as 40×40 wooden pallets because uncommon sizes may not be in high demand while the available inventory of 40×40 wooden pallets is plentiful.

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