William H. Sardo Jr. Pallet and Container Research Laboratory

Just a Thought

Marshall White
April 22, 1998

Over the years it has been confirmed that pallets are damaged most often during handling with fork lifts and pallet jacks, and when empty pallets are dropped. With today's materials and technologies, we are able to design pallets to resist, to varying degrees, the forces associated with these handlings. However, there are forces associated with a few material handling practices, which are clearly abnormal, and that no economical pallet design can resist. The most common abnormal handling of double-deck pallets is the misplacement of hte wheel of the pallet jack on top of the bottom deck component, and then the operator attempts to elevate the pallet. Of the family of low rider pallet jacks, the electric (and especially the electric double jack with 80-inch long tines) do the most damage (actually it is the driver who does the damage).

There are several potential solutions to this problem. One could attempt to change the habits of the fork lift driver (good luck); two, remove the bottom decks of pallets (sometimes you have to have them) three, make the pallet repairable (such as many wood pallets), or four, make the pallet relatively inexpensive (such as many wood pallets).

Using this logic, it seems one way wood pallet manufacturers industries can maintain market share when threatened by alternatives, often more pricey plastic pallets, is to endorse the use of, or perhaps even see to there customers, pallet jacks.