Mixed loads: the unsorted pile

What is in one

Whatever came off the trucks: stringer and block pallets, more than one size, several states of repair and a share of cores, all in one pile.

Who buys one

• A recycler who will sort it and repair what can be saved.
• A yard that needs bulk platforms and does not care about size.
• A shop that will take what fits and send the rest on.

When to sort first

A mixed load becomes more useful when sorted. Splitting out the Grade A and B 48 x 40 pallets and setting the cores aside separates what can be sold from what cannot. If you are selling, that sort is often worth the effort; the worth guide explains why.

A sampling method for a heap

A mixed load is judged by a sample, not by the whole heap. Pull twenty pallets from different depths of the pile, lay them out by size, and tally grades. If twelve are 48 x 40 stringer pallets, five are other sizes and three are cores, then a trailer of the pile can be expected to hold roughly the same proportions. A larger sample narrows the error; one picked from the top of the pile overstates the good stock because the best pallets sit where they were last stacked.

Which mixed loads are worth moving

• Piles in which one size makes up most of the count.
• Piles that have stayed covered and dry.
• Piles within a trailer or two of a buyer who sorts.
• Piles that mix only grades, not sizes or builds.

Questions a buyer of a heap should ask

• What share of the pile is the size I need, counted by a sample and not guessed?
• How many pallets carry a repair, and which kind, a plate or a companion stringer?
• Were the stacks covered, and which months did they stand outside?
• Do any pallets belong to a pooling company or carry another owner's brand?

Why two heaps with the same count differ

A hundred-pallet pile from a distributor that sorts as it goes holds mostly 48 x 40 stock, and a hundred-pallet pile from a dock that receives from many suppliers holds a spread of sizes. The first can be priced from a photo. The second needs an hour of sorting, and the buyer's labour is the cost the seller feels.

Trailer fill with a mixed pile

Different footprints do not stack together, so a trailer of mixed pallets is loaded in separate blocks, one size to a block, with gaps left where the blocks meet. That wastes floor space compared with a clean 26-pallet layer. A seller who stacks by size in the yard, even without sorting by grade, makes loading faster and reduces the freight cost per usable pallet.

The census before the price

A written tally turns a heap into something a buyer can use. List the pallets by footprint, 48 x 40, 42 x 42 and the rest; within each size, by build and entry; and within each, by grade. Three columns of counts is often enough. The unusual sizes come up here. A scatter of 40 x 48 pallets, which are rack-side-turned standard pallets, is easy to mistake for 48 x 40 by sight, and a census catches them.

Metal in the pile

Nails that have worked out, strapping bands and staples are common in a mixed heap and are a problem for any grinder or dismantler that handles the pile. Metal is picked out or pulled with magnets before wood goes to a machine. A seller who removes loose strapping and stacks pallets so that nothing sticks out makes the heap faster to sort and safer to lift.