01
Accepting bundled freight
Bundling hides the biggest variable in the total and makes it impossible to see whether a lane change or a bigger order would save money.
FixAsk for freight as its own line on every quote.
01The four ways pallets move
| Mode | Quantity | Cost per unit | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full truckload | 450–560 | Lowest | Regular volume, one destination |
| Shared lane / partial | 100–450 | Moderate | Mid-volume on an existing route |
| LTL | Under 100 | Highest | Urgent, small, or remote |
| Trailer drop | Any, you load | Very low | Sites with space and a forklift |
| Customer pickup | 25+ | Freight-free | Local buyers with a truck |
The break points matter more than the rate card. Moving from 380 to 460 pallets on a load can cut per-unit freight by a third, because the trailer costs what it costs whether it leaves half full or full.
02Backhaul: the lever most buyers never pull
A truck delivering pallets to your dock has to go somewhere afterwards. If it goes back empty, that empty mile is in your rate whether it is itemised or not. If it collects cores from a site twenty miles away, the return leg pays for itself and the rate falls.
- If you both buy pallets and generate empties, say so — the same truck can do both and the saving is substantial.
- If you are near another customer of ours, route density may put you on a scheduled lane rather than a spot quote.
- If your dock hours are flexible, tell us. A truck that can arrive at 5am costs less than one that must arrive at 10am.
- If you can take a trailer drop, take it. It is almost always the cheapest option available.
03Delivery logistics we will ask about
- Dock or ground level, and is there a leveller?
- Can you unload with your own equipment, or do we need a lift gate?
- Receiving hours, and whether an appointment is required.
- Trailer parking — is there room to drop, and for how long?
- Access constraints: low bridges, weight-restricted roads, tight turns, residential zoning.
- Whether the load can be double-stacked in transit, which affects the count per trailer.
By the numbers
The figures worth remembering
Four numbers that decide most of what follows on this page.
- Freight share of a recycled pallet's landed cost
- 30–50%Freight share of a recycled pallet's landed cost
- Empty stacked pallets per 53' trailer
- 500–560Empty stacked pallets per 53' trailer
- Lane saving from a paired backhaul
- 15–30%Lane saving from a paired backhaul
- States on scheduled routes
- 38States on scheduled routes
Rules of thumb
Carry these in your head
- 01The cheapest mile is the one that was going to be driven anyway.
- 02Route density beats distance.
- 03Crossing 450 units on a load is worth more than most negotiated discounts.
- 04Trailer drops remove despatch cost entirely.
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
Dock or ground level
And is there a leveller? This decides whether we need a lift gate.
- 02
Unloading capability
Your own equipment, or do we bring it?
- 03
Receiving hours and appointments
A truck that can arrive at 5am costs less than one that must arrive at 10.
- 04
Trailer parking
Is there room to drop, and for how long?
- 05
Access constraints
Low bridges, weight limits, tight turns, residential zoning.
- 06
Double-stacking
Whether the load can be double-stacked in transit changes the count per trailer.
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
Never mentioning outbound empties
We can only pair what we know about. Customers routinely pay a third party to haul away pallets from the same building we deliver to.
FixMention your empties at quote stage, even if you weren't planning to sell them.
03
Assuming distance sets the price
A customer 250 miles away on an existing route is often cheaper to serve than one 80 miles away in a direction nothing else goes.
FixAsk whether you are on a route or on a dedicated run.
Side by side
The four ways pallets move
| Mode | Quantity | Cost per unit | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full truckload | 450–560 | Lowest | Regular volume, one destination |
| Shared lane / partial | 100–450 | Moderate | Mid-volume on an existing route |
| LTL | Under 100 | Highest | Urgent, small or remote |
| Trailer drop | Any, you load | Very low | Sites with space and a forklift |
| Customer pickup | 25+ | Freight-free | Local buyers with a truck |
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
Sites that cannot take a 53-foot trailer and have not said so
A truck that cannot reach the dock is a wasted day for both of us. Tell us the constraint and we route a 48 or a straight truck instead.
- 02
Rigid narrow delivery windows on urban lanes
A load that must arrive at 10am on a specific day costs materially more than one that can arrive at 5am within a range. Flexibility is worth real money.
- 03
Alaska, Hawaii and some remote interior lanes
Technically possible, rarely economic. The freight commonly exceeds the value of the pallets several times over, and we will say so.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Load size against trailer capacity | The single largest variable, and the one buyers control most directly. | Doubles per-unit freight below 250 units |
| Backhaul pairing | Whether the return leg earns or runs empty. | 15–30% of the lane |
| Delivery window | Early and flexible against fixed and mid-morning. | Substantial on urban lanes |
| Equipment at your dock | Self-unloading against lift gate and labour. | Fixed accessorial cost |
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
“Am I on a scheduled route or a dedicated run?”
- 02
“Is there a collection near me that could pair with this delivery?”
- 03
“What would a trailer drop save?”
- 04
“What is the earliest arrival you can offer, and what does it save?”
- 05
“How many pallets are actually on this trailer?”
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.
- FMCSA hours-of-service
Federal driver hours rules, which shape what delivery windows are realistically deliverable on a given lane.
- Federal bridge formula and state weight limits
Determine how much can legally ride on a given axle configuration, which matters more with hardwood than softwood.
- NMFTA freight classification
The classification system underlying LTL pricing, relevant on sub-trailer quantities.
- ISO 668
Container dimensions — the reason two 48-inch pallets do not fit across a 40-foot box.
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.
- Pooling
- A rental model where a third party owns the pallets and charges per trip. CHEP, PECO and iGPS are the major North American pools.
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.
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
Logistics6 min readTom Okafor
The hidden cost of buying pallets 380 at a time
A 53-foot trailer costs what it costs whether you put 380 pallets on it or 540. Most buyers negotiate the unit price and never look at the number that actually moves.
Read
- freight
- cost
- purchasing
Buying7 min readDana Whitfield
Designing a pallet around a container instead of a catalogue
Start with the box you are paying for, not the pallet somebody else standardised for a different vehicle in 1968.
Read
- export
- container
- design
Questions
Answers to what buyers actually ask
Straight answers, including the ones that cost us the sale.
How many pallets fit on a truck?
A 53-foot dry van holds 500–560 stacked 48x40 pallets depending on stack height and whether they are double-stacked. Loaded with product, the same trailer carries 26 pallets single-stacked or 52 double-stacked.
Do you deliver to all 50 states?
We run scheduled routes in 38 and quote spot freight to the remainder of the lower 48. Alaska and Hawaii are technically possible and rarely economic — we will say so rather than quote a number that makes no sense.
Can you drop a trailer at our site?
Yes, where there is space to park it safely and you can load with your own equipment. It is usually the lowest-cost option for both sides because it removes despatch and waiting time from the equation.
Is freight included in your pallet price?
It is quoted as a separate line, deliberately. Bundling hides the biggest variable in the total and makes it impossible to see whether a lane change, a bigger order or a trailer drop would save you money.
How do we reduce freight cost on pallet orders?
Order in full-trailer multiples, take a scheduled slot rather than a spot one, and self-load from a dropped trailer if you have the yard for it. Freight is 30–50% of landed cost on recycled pallets, so those three choices move the total far more than negotiating the per-pallet rate.