What Is The Standard Pallet Size

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When you operate a warehouse, many decisions impact your facility's productivity, profitability, and general safety. Warehouse managers must examine one significant factor employing pallets and pallet racking systems to enhance material handling and inventory management. Although considerable progress has been achieved in standardization and reusability, pallet sizes vary significantly among nations.

Different Pallet Sizes

Pallets come in various sizes and styles, and different industries have different standards for their average pallet size.

• Within the freight shipping industry, the standard pallet size is 48 inches deep by 40 inches wide. These standard pallet dimensions were first introduced by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which is the world's leading authority to ship consumer packaged goods.
  

• Though 48-by-40 inches is considered the standard pallet size, there are other common pallet dimensions to be aware of when determining the right pallet racking solutions for your warehouse. Squared pallet dimensions also include the typical 42-by-42 inches and the larger 48-by-48 inches.
  

• The pallet size chart of wooden pallets often varies from country to country, depending on usage. However, the most common standard sizes used worldwide are 36 x 36 inches and 48 x 48 inches.
  

• The most common US pallet size is 40×48 inches.
  

Pallets are used for a broad range of purposes; thus, there is no one standard. For example, pallets must potentially pass through doorways, fit in conventional shipping containers, or allow for the minimal labor cost for that specific usage, depending on their use.

What is ISO Pallet Size?

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has selected six pallet dimensions among the many diverse pallet sizes available, which are now commonly used as standard pallet sizes worldwide.

This information is an excellent beginning point if you consider exporting your goods to a foreign nation and don't want to suffer additional costs and time delays in changing your items to local pallets upon arrival. It also allows you to determine how many pallets can fit inside a shipping container.

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Why is standard pallet size important?

Standardized pallets stack and store more readily than different pallets; thus, having a consistent pallet size in your warehouse is critical for space management. Because space is a valuable commodity in any warehouse, choose a pallet size that you can stick to in order to maximize your warehouse's space and overall efficiency.