What is a “Standard Pallet” Size?
Written by Phil Loynes
What is a “Standard Pallet” Size?
You will often hear someone in logistics say “It’s on a standard pallet”, but what is a standard pallet size?
The difficulty with using the term “Standard pallet” is that it means completely different things depending on who you ask, and even more confusing, they can all be correct.
When it comes to pallet dimensions, in the UK the most common pallet base size 120 x 100cm, while in Europe, a standard “Euro Pallet” is 120 x 80cm. The real fun starts when you throw imperial measurements into the mix, as a standard GMA pallet from the USA is 48" x 40”. The GMA pallet size comes from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, founded in 1908, who in the 1960s were under pressure from large manufacturers to make a more efficient way of transporting goods than sending them in parcels, so the GMA decided to send the goods on standardised pallets.
Standardising the footprint of the pallets made distribution of goods smoother, and enabled shippers and buyers to design their logistics planning more efficiently and in harmony. Even though the CMA rebranded to the CBA (Consumer Brand Association) in 2020, the term CMA pallet is still widely used. But what happens when pallets are not circulating within the nation of origin, and goods are being exported or imported? The term “Standard pallet” then becomes a huge liability.
At a glance, to the trained eye of a veteran shipper, it is fairly easy to spot the difference between a UK pallet and a Euro pallet. The Euro Pallet is visibly narrower in width than a UK pallet with a 20cm difference, but put a GMA pallet that has recently arrived from the USA into your UK warehouse, and you’d be forgiven for not being able to spot the difference from a UK pallet. This is because of the difference in imperial and metric measurements. While a UK pallet will be 120 x 100cm, a GMA pallet from the USA will be 48” x 40”, which when rounded up (because carriers never round down!) equates to 122 x 102cm.
Sometimes you will get away with this size difference when booking in a pallet space with a UK freight provider, but as the freight industry pulls itself into the 21st century carriers are being much more strict, and crucially, more efficient in their auditing of collected pallet sizes.
Some carriers will specifically allocate spaces on their vehicle based on pallet footprint, and if your pallet is a few centimetres over the footprint, they will charge you not just for the extra few centimetres, but for the pallet space next to it that they argue can no longer be used. So if you re-used a GMA pallet from the US to send out your goods on, you may find that you are being charged for 4 pallet spaces instead of the one that you were quoted for, which would be a very nasty surprise. If your pallet was non-stackable (which we will cover in another article) you may find that you are charged for 8 pallet spaces! So it is very important to make sure that you know what dimensions you are working with when sending out pallets, or when you are importing pallets to the UK from abroad.
When someone tells you the goods are on a “standard pallet”, try to get into the habit of asking “What are the dimensions of that in cm?”.
Even when someone specifies that something is a “Euro Pallet” or “UK Pallet”, it is best not to assume that the person knows what the correct dimensions are for the pallet that they are describing. When audited charges eat in to profit margins, it is always worth that extra email just to confirm the actual dimensions of goods coming to you, or getting out your tape measure and nipping down to the warehouse before you send a pallet out the door. The repercussions of guessing are rarely worth the time saved.
So to answer the question, what is a standard pallet size?
The following are the standard sizes recognised internationally:
| Area | Size |
|---|---|
| UK | 120cm x 100cm |
| Euro | 120cm x 80cm |
| USA GMA | 48 x40"/122cm x 102cm |
But save yourself the stress. Get out that tape measure!
Next question… what is the pallet made from?
We’ll cover that next time!
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Video and Article: You will often hear someone in logistics say “It’s on a standard pallet”, but what does that actually mean? The difficulty with using the term “Standard pallet” is that it means completely different things depending on who you ask, and even more confusing, they can all be correct... Read