Guide: grades
Pallet grades, in plain words
ORLANDO — Pallet grades describe how much repair a used pallet has had: Grade A has had none, Grade B has had replaced boards, plates or plugs, Grade C has several and may have boards that are not fully intact, and a core is a pallet a shipper no longer needs.
The ladder
| Grade | Also called | What has been done to it | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade A | Grade 1 | Nothing; no repairs and none needed | Food and outbound retail |
| Grade B | Grade 2 | Replaced deck boards, plates or plugs | Warehouse and inbound use |
| Grade C | Grade 3 | Several repairs, poor appearance, boards may be incomplete | Rough, one-way and internal moves |
| Core | None | Not worth shipping on as it stands | A recycler for repair, dismantling or grinding |
Where the grades come from
The GMA, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, wrote the standard for the 48 x 40 pallet, and its grades survive as shorthand. But the GMA no longer governs pallet specifications, so there is no single rulebook. Pallet buyers and recyclers apply their own versions of the same ladder.
Two things are fixed in practice. A repair always drops a pallet from A. And a damaged frame, a cracked stringer or a missing block, always puts it below usable.
What graders look at
- Deck boards: whole, split, replaced, or missing a piece. Spacing between them matters too.
- Stringers or blocks: sound, cracked or repaired with a plug. A plug used to repair a broken board can be between 6 and 24 inches long.
- Overall look: straight and square, or leaning and patched.
- Moisture and mould, which sit alongside the grade and decide whether a pallet can go to food or pharmaceutical freight.
Choosing a grade
Pick the least grade the load can live with. A pallet that goes to a customer who inspects it needs to be A. One that stays inside the building does not. Grade C is for loads where appearance counts for nothing and the pallet will not be inspected.
The grade sheet takes this further. Switch a plug on and Grade A becomes Grade B; add a broken board and it falls to C. Use it to see where your own stack sits.
Questions, answered
What is the difference between Grade A and Grade B pallets?
Grade A has had no repairs. Grade B has been repaired with replaced deck boards, plates or plugs. Both are sound; B is cheaper.
Is a "core" a grade?
Not exactly. A core is a used pallet a shipper no longer needs, sold or handed to a recycler. It sits at the bottom of the ladder because it is not for shipping on as it stands.
Does heat treatment change the grade?
No. Heat treatment is about the wood's temperature history, grade is about repairs. A pallet can be Grade C and stamped, or Grade A and not.
What a recycler's grading looks like when measured
The best public measurement of repaired-pallet grades comes from a Virginia Tech study for the USDA Forest Service. It sampled 1,867 pallets at 20 locations and found that sorting practice differed from one place to the next: the repaired pallets were segregated into anything from two to eleven grades, which the researchers collapsed into three. In the three-grade version, the average stringer repairs per pallet were 0.15, 1.04 and 1.69.
Strength followed the letters. The researchers wrote that the A, B and C procedures appear to segregate pallets well by strength across the stringers, and that lower grades were less durable than Grade A in rough-handling tests. Grade C pallets kept about a third of a new pallet's racking stiffness and half its racking strength, though the authors say they can still carry light loads in racks.
What the letters do not tell you
- Size, build or species of wood: those are separate lines on an order.
- Moisture content at the time of delivery.
- Whether the pallet carries an ISPM 15 mark.
- Whether the pallet belongs to a pool and must be returned.
Grades in a request
A request that names a grade should also say who judges it. A seller grading its own stack and a buyer inspecting at delivery may read the same pallets differently, and the gap shows up as a dispute. Agreeing a sample, such as ten pallets pulled at random from the pile, and a rule for what counts as a repair, settles most of it in advance.
Sources
Last reviewed 10 November 2026.