01The ten-second test
Walk onto your floor. Watch how a loaded pallet gets moved. If it is only ever a forklift, a notched stringer pallet does everything you need and costs less. If a manual pallet jack has to come at it from the long side, you need block construction, and no amount of cost engineering changes that.
The reason is geometry, not quality. A jack's load wheels have to roll along the floor underneath the pallet. On a block pallet there is a continuous channel between the blocks on both axes. On a notched stringer pallet, the notch is an inch and a half deep and the wheels cannot drop through it.
02What the words actually mean
| Term | Forklift | Pallet jack | Construction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-way | 2 sides | 2 sides | Unnotched stringers — the strongest stringer type |
| Partial 4-way | 4 sides | 2 sides | Notched stringers |
| 4-way notched | 4 sides | 2 sides | Same as above, different name |
| Full 4-way | 4 sides | 4 sides | Block pallet |
03The strength question
Block pallets carry more, and the reason is that they never cut a hole in a load-bearing member. A stringer pallet solves fork access by notching a beam at mid-span, which is structurally the worst place to remove material. Nearly every stringer failure I see in the repair shop starts at a notch shoulder and runs with the grain.
| Measure | Stringer 48x40 | Block 48x40 |
|---|---|---|
| Racked capacity | 1,800–2,500 lb | 2,500–3,300 lb |
| Racked as % of static | ~33% | ~43% |
| Typical service trips | 5–7 | 8–11 |
| Weight | 38–48 lb | 44–58 lb |
| Purchase price | Baseline | +15–25% |
04The repair argument, from the shop floor
This is the part that never makes it into a purchasing comparison and it matters more than the purchase price over a fleet's life.
When a block pallet is damaged, I usually replace one block. Cut it out, fit a new one, done. The deck structure is undisturbed and the pallet comes out of the shop at the same grade it went in.
When a stringer pallet has a cracked stringer, I have two options. Add a companion stringer — which works, but adds 3 to 5 lb and drops the pallet from Grade A to Grade B — or dismantle it. There is no repair that leaves it as it was.
Over a fleet on a repair programme, that difference shows up in the annual repair bill within a year. It is the reason every serious pooling operation standardises on block construction.
05So when does stringer win?
Often. Most of the time, in fact, which is why stringer pallets are the majority of what moves in North America.
- One-way freight. You are paying for durability that somebody else consumes.
- Forklift-only operations. The jack argument never arises.
- Cost-sensitive lanes where the pallet is a consumable rather than an asset.
- Weight-sensitive freight, where 6 to 10 lb per pallet is a real cost.
- Anywhere you need availability now — recovered stringer stock is far more plentiful than recovered block stock.
The break-even against block is roughly three round trips. Below that, stringer. Above it, run the numbers, and remember to include the repair line rather than just the purchase price.
