Journal category
Pricing, purchasing, specification and the arithmetic behind a quote.
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The subject
Almost every expensive pallet mistake we see starts in the same place: a specification written from a catalogue rather than from the load. Somebody picks a part number that looks right, or repeats what the last supplier sent, and nobody who could act on it ever hears how the pallet is actually handled.
The articles filed here are about the buying decision itself — what moves a price, where the freight break points sit, why the same pallet costs four dollars more in one metro than another, and what to write into a purchase order so a grade means something. Several of them argue for spending less than you were planning to.
The single most useful habit is asking for freight to be itemised separately. It is 30–50% of the landed cost of a recycled pallet, it varies more between lanes than the pallet does between grades, and it is the number almost nobody negotiates.
Recurring figures
Where to start
Start here. The trailer, not the unit price, is where the money is.
The errors that cost more than the pallets did.
The seasonal pattern, and three ways to buy around it.
Why new and recycled prices move at different speeds.
If you export, this one is worth real money.
4 articles
When lumber spikes, both new and recycled pallets get more expensive — at different speeds and for different reasons. The gap between them is where buying decisions live.
Start with the box you are paying for, not the pallet somebody else standardised for a different vehicle in 1968.
Every November a customer asks why the price moved. The answer is the same every year and it is not complicated — but it is worth understanding, because you can buy around it.
None of these are exotic. All five turn up in ordinary purchase orders every week, and each one costs multiples of whatever the pallet saved.
Other subjects
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