Pallet types and how each one is built

Two questions, four words

Two separate questions get mixed up. How is the frame built: on stringers or on blocks? And how do forks get in: from two sides or four? A stringer pallet can be two-way or, with notched stringers, four-way. A block pallet is four-way by design.

Each of the four types below has its own page, with a drawing, the strengths and weak points, and the freight it usually carries.

The four at a glance

How the type shapes the grade

Grading follows the frame. A cracked stringer or a missing block takes a pallet down to a core, because the frame is what the forks lift. Deck boards can be replaced; frames are harder. The grade sheet lets you switch between a stringer and a block build and see the difference.

Choosing

• Mostly docks with forklifts and standard racks: stringer, often two-way.
• Pooled and export freight, and anywhere forks come from every side: block.
• Tight docks and cross-docks where a truck cannot be turned: four-way.

Two vocabularies, one pallet

Trade writing uses stringer and block for how a pallet is framed and two-way and four-way for how forks enter it. Pallet references treat a block pallet as a four-way pallet in practice because the gaps between blocks face every side. A stringer pallet is lifted from two sides unless its stringers are notched. Calling a pallet a block pallet therefore says something about its frame and entry together, while calling it a stringer pallet says only about its frame.

Bottom boards matter to machines

All stringer pallets and some block pallets have bottom boards running in one direction. Automated handling equipment can be designed for that, but often runs faster and more reliably when the bottom edges carry boards in both directions. A buyer for a conveyor line should say whether a pallet must be fully reversible and whether bottom boards must run both ways.

Which type for which equipment

Faces, wings and decks

Beyond the four types, pallets are described by their decks. A single-face pallet has one deck of boards and no bottom boards. A double-face, non-reversible pallet has a deck at top and bottom but is built to be loaded on one side only. A reversible pallet is the same on both faces. A wing pallet has deck boards that extend past the stringers, which suits forklifts that grip the wing. Each choice changes what a given pallet can do on a conveyor or in a rack.

A pile can hold all four

A mixed pile at a dock can contain a stringer pallet with solid timbers, a notched four-way, a block pallet and a plain single-face skid. The quickest way to sort them is by touching the underside: solid timbers along the full length mean two-way; half-moon cuts mean notched four-way; separate blocks mean block. Three passes through a pile, by feel, give three stacks that a buyer can price separately.

Where the types sit in the pallet market

Wikipedia reports that pallet production uses 43 percent of United States hardwood and 15 percent of softwood. It describes softwood stringer pallets as the cheapest and often expendable, and hardwood block pallets as costing more and often returned or resold. Plastic pallets can last a hundred trips or more at about ten times the price of hardwood, and steel makes up under one percent of the market.