01
Comparing quotes with freight bundled differently
You are not comparing the same thing, and the larger number is hidden inside the smaller one.
FixRequire freight as a separate line from everyone you ask.
01Current ranges
| Item | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48x40 recycled Grade C | $6.50 | $8.75 | $11.00 |
| 48x40 recycled Grade B | $8.50 | $11.50 | $14.00 |
| 48x40 recycled Grade A | $11.00 | $13.50 | $16.50 |
| 48x40 recycled A-clean | $12.50 | $15.00 | $18.00 |
| 48x40 new SYP | $21.00 | $25.00 | $29.00 |
| 48x40 new hardwood | $25.00 | $29.50 | $34.00 |
| 48x48 recycled B | $10.00 | $13.00 | $16.00 |
| 42x42 recycled B | $9.00 | $12.00 | $15.50 |
| Block pallet recycled A | $14.00 | $18.00 | $23.00 |
| 1200x800 EPAL, licensed | $26.00 | $34.00 | $44.00 |
| Heat treatment surcharge | $1.10 | $1.55 | $1.90 |
| Rackable HDPE plastic | $75.00 | $108.00 | $160.00 |
02The five drivers, ranked by impact
1. Freight distance and order size
The largest single variable, and the one buyers control most directly. A trailer costs roughly the same whether it carries 380 pallets or 540. Consolidating orders to fill trailers is worth more than negotiating unit price in almost every case.
2. Regional core availability
Metros with heavy inbound retail — Atlanta, Dallas, the Inland Empire, northern New Jersey — generate more cores than they consume, so recycled prices run low. Manufacturing corridors and remote regions consume more than they generate and run high.
3. Lumber futures
New pallet prices track lumber almost directly. Recycled prices track it indirectly: when new gets expensive, demand shifts to recycled and the spread compresses. A lumber spike raises both, just at different speeds.
4. Grade and repair labour
Grade A requires more sorting and more rejection. Every step up the grade ladder costs labour, and labour costs have risen faster than lumber over the last five years.
5. Seasonality
Q4 retail build-up tightens cores and raises recycled prices; Q1 releases them. Agricultural regions spike hard at harvest. If your demand is flexible, buying counter-cyclically is worth 5–10%.
- Freight share of landed cost
- 30–50%Freight share of landed cost
- Metro-to-metro spread on the same pallet
- ~$4Metro-to-metro spread on the same pallet
- Saving from standing orders vs spot
- 8–15%Saving from standing orders vs spot
03Seven ways to pay less without buying worse
- Fill the trailer. Cross the 450-unit line and per-unit freight drops sharply.
- Match grade to application. Floor-stacked storage does not need Grade A. See pallet grades.
- Sell your empties back. A backhaul pairing lowers your inbound rate and pays you for outbound wood.
- Commit to a schedule. Fixed releases let a supplier plan recovery, and that discount is real.
- Take a trailer drop. If you have yard space and a forklift, this is the cheapest freight there is.
- Be flexible on delivery window. A truck that can arrive at 5am costs less than one that must arrive at 10am.
- Buy counter-seasonally where your storage allows it.
By the numbers
The figures worth remembering
Four numbers that decide most of what follows on this page.
- Freight share of landed cost
- 30–50%Freight share of landed cost
- Metro-to-metro spread on the same pallet
- ~$4Metro-to-metro spread on the same pallet
- Saving from standing orders vs spot
- 8–15%Saving from standing orders vs spot
- Typical Q4 recycled price swing
- 8–18%Typical Q4 recycled price swing
Rules of thumb
Carry these in your head
- 01Freight is the biggest lever and the one nobody negotiates.
- 02Core availability is regional and seasonal; lumber futures are neither.
- 03Standing orders beat spot buying by 8–15%, consistently.
- 04Never optimise below the grade your application needs.
Before you order
The decisions we will ask you to make
A quote turnaround is limited by how many follow-up questions we have to ask. Working through this list removes nearly all of them.
- 01
Get freight itemised
If a supplier will not separate it, that tells you something.
- 02
Find out your load count
Most buyers do not know how many pallets are on a typical delivery.
- 03
Model a bigger, less frequent order
40% less often, 60% more each time.
- 04
Mention your outbound empties
The backhaul pairing is the largest single lever.
- 05
Ask about a trailer drop
Cheapest freight available if you have space and a lift.
- 06
Ask for the validity window
A price that expires is an honest price.
What goes wrong
Expensive mistakes, and the fix for each
Every one of these turns up in ordinary purchase orders. All of them cost multiples of whatever they appeared to save.
02
Buying in Q4 on the spot market
Retail build-up holds cores in distribution centres while demand rises. Prices rise 8–18%.
FixPlace a standing order in Q3 and buy counter-seasonally where storage allows.
03
Dropping a grade to hold a budget
A Grade C pallet under a racked load is how a quarter becomes memorable for the wrong reason.
FixCut freight cost, not structural margin.
Side by side
Current delivered ranges
| Item | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48x40 recycled Grade C | $6.50 | $8.75 | $11.00 |
| 48x40 recycled Grade B | $8.50 | $11.50 | $14.00 |
| 48x40 recycled Grade A | $11.00 | $13.50 | $16.50 |
| 48x40 recycled A-clean | $12.50 | $15.00 | $18.00 |
| 48x40 new SYP | $21.00 | $25.00 | $29.00 |
| 48x40 new hardwood | $25.00 | $29.50 | $34.00 |
| Block pallet recycled A | $14.00 | $18.00 | $23.00 |
| 1200x800 EPAL, licensed | $26.00 | $34.00 | $44.00 |
| Heat treatment surcharge | $1.10 | $1.55 | $1.90 |
| Rackable HDPE plastic | $75.00 | $108.00 | $160.00 |
Against our interest
When this is the wrong answer
We would rather lose the order than sell you the wrong thing. These are the situations where this page is not what you need.
- 01
Planning a budget against published ranges
These exist so you can sanity-check a quote, not so you can forecast from them. Freight is 30–50% of the total and it is entirely lane-specific.
- 02
Comparing quotes with freight bundled differently
You are not comparing the same thing, and the larger number is hidden inside the smaller one.
- 03
Optimising below the grade the application needs
A Grade C pallet under a racked load is not a saving. It is a deferred incident.
What moves the price
Cost drivers, and roughly how much each one is worth
A quote is not a list price with a discount applied. It is these variables added up, which is why two quotes for nominally the same thing can differ so widely.
| Driver | What it is | Rough effect |
|---|---|---|
| Freight distance and load size | The largest single variable and the one buyers control most directly. | 30–50% of landed cost |
| Regional core availability | Surplus metros against deficit metros, driven by inbound retail and port volume. | Up to $4 per unit |
| Lumber futures | Direct on new, indirect on recycled through substitution. | Moves both, at different speeds |
| Grade and repair labour | Wage pressure has outpaced lumber for five years. | $2–4 between grades |
| Seasonality | Q4 tightening against Q1 release, plus agricultural harvest spikes. | 8–35% depending on market |
Due diligence
Questions to ask any supplier
Us included. The answers tell you a great deal, and so does how quickly they arrive — a yard that has these documents ready is a yard that has thought about them.
- 01
“How long is this price valid?”
- 02
“What is the freight line, separately?”
- 03
“What does the next trailer break point do to the unit price?”
- 04
“What is the adjustment mechanism if lumber moves?”
- 05
“What would a standing order save against buying spot?”
The rulebook
Standards and authorities that actually apply
Plenty of pallet marketing invokes standards loosely. These are the real documents behind this subject, and what each one does and does not cover.
- Random Lengths / lumber indices
The published price series that new pallet costs track, and against which supply agreements are commonly indexed.
- Producer Price Index
US Bureau of Labor Statistics series covering wood containers and pallets, sometimes used as a contract escalator.
- UCC Article 2
Governs firm offers, price terms and how long a quotation binds.
- No published grade standard
Which is why two quotes at the same price can be for materially different products.
Vocabulary
The terms used on this page
Defined the way the trade uses them, not the way a dictionary would.
- Core
- An as-collected used pallet — unsorted, unrepaired and ungraded. Raw material rather than a product, and priced accordingly.
- Grade A
- Our top recycled tier: no companion stringers, two or fewer replaced deck boards, one plug maximum, squareness within 0.5 inch.
- Grade B
- Companion stringers permitted, up to five replaced boards, up to three plugs, squareness within 0.75 inch. The most commonly traded recycled grade.
- A-clean
- A Grade A structural sort with an added appearance screen — no stain, mould shadow, paint or raised splinters on the top deck. Costs roughly $1.40 more per pallet and eliminates most retail rejections.
- EPAL
- European Pallet Association — the licensing body for the Euro pallet. Genuine EUR-1 pallets carry an EPAL brand on the corner blocks.
From the journal
Longer reading on this subject
Written by the people who grade, repair and haul the wood — including the articles that argue against buying from us.
Buying7 min readDana Whitfield
Lumber futures, core supply, and the spread between them
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.
Read
- pricing
- lumber
- market
Logistics6 min readTom Okafor
Backhaul pairing: how empty miles set your pallet price
The cheapest mile in trucking is the one that was going to be driven anyway. Most pallet buyers are sitting next to one and have never mentioned it.
Read
- freight
- routes
- cost
Buying5 min readDana Whitfield
Q4 core scarcity: why pallets cost more in November
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.
Read
- pricing
- seasonality
- purchasing
Questions
Answers to what buyers actually ask
Straight answers, including the ones that cost us the sale.
How much does a used pallet cost?
A recycled 48x40 runs $6.50–$16.50 delivered depending on grade and lane, with Grade B around $11.50 as the most common transaction in the market. Odd sizes and remote lanes sit above those ranges.
Why do pallet prices vary so much between suppliers?
Three reasons: freight distance is usually the biggest cost and varies by lane; grade definitions are supplier-written so 'Grade A' is not a fixed product; and core availability is regional. Compare quotes with freight itemised separately or you are not comparing the same thing.
Do pallet prices go up in certain seasons?
Yes. Q4 retail build-up tightens core supply and lifts recycled prices; Q1 usually releases them. Agricultural regions spike at harvest. New pallet prices track lumber futures on a shorter lag.
Is it cheaper to buy pallets in bulk?
Substantially, and the mechanism is freight rather than volume discount. The step from a partial load to a full trailer is worth more than most negotiated unit discounts.
What should a pallet quote actually include?
Grade criteria in writing, freight stated separately, lead time, and what happens to rejects. A price missing those four is not comparable to another price. Freight alone is 30–50% of landed cost on recycled pallets, so a quote that buries it can look cheaper while costing more.