In the freight industry, a lot of emphasis is put on using the right packaging materials. With the right packaging, carriers can manage their loads a lot easier and quicker and the right type of packaging also ensures the safety of goods in transition. Plenty of items such as furniture, home appliances, foods, and much more are pretty fragile and can easily break if they are not handled correctly. Heavy items like packs of cement are also incredibly tough to load on and off different trucks. Pallet transport is frequently used in the freight industry to overcome the challenges of handling these delicate and expensive items.
What is pallet transport?
Pallet transport basically refers to the use of wooden or plastic pallets to secure items in a shipment to prevent these items from breaking and to make it easier to get loads on and off carrier vehicles. Shipment goods are fastened to wooden or plastic pallets with plastic wrapping that secures these items to the pallet. The entire pallet with goods is then loaded onto trucks or into containers by using a forklift. This makes it much easier for carriers to handle their loads whilst reducing the risk of shipment damages.
The types of pallets used in Australia
Australia’s transport industry uses three major types of pallets;
- Australian standard pallets are brown wooden 2-way pallets
- CHEP pallets are 4-way blue pallets and are available in wood or plastic
- Loscam pallets are 2 or 4-way pallets and are red in colour and made of wood.
All of these pallet types are manufactured according to a specific standard so they match forklifts used to handle these pallets and so they will be compatible with carriers all over Australia.
What you need to know about plastic pallets
Plastic pallets are much stronger, more durable and sturdier than wooden pallets. But these pallets are also a lot more expensive and they are not nearly as commonly used as wooden pallets.
What you need to know about wooden pallets
Wooden pallets are the most common pallet used in the freight industry because it is so affordable. This type of pallet is also manufactured from a renewable product – wood – which makes it a much more sustainable product. Wooden pallets can be recycled into various objects such as furniture, toys, constructions and more and can be used as a fuel. This type of pallet is also considered a much healthier transportation product for produce since wood naturally absorbs bacteria and thus prevent the spread of bacteria between food loads where plastic pallets are much more likely to spread bacteria since the bacteria cannot be absorbed into the plastic.
The benefits of using pallets for your shipments
Using pallets to transport your products has many benefits in store for your company. Here are the top reasons so many companies use pallets for the transportation of their freights; Pallets take up little space because they can be stacked. This makes it possible to send a lot more items on the same truckload. Pallets lend plenty of strength to fragile items and greatly reduce the risk of breakage while goods are in transition. Pallet freight is typically a lot more affordable than other freight solutions Wooden pallets are environmentally friendly since they are manufactured from a completely renewable product If you want to save money, secure your items when they are in transition and give carriers more flexibility in handling your goods, then you should definitely consider pallet transport. Pallet transport is used all over Australia in all major hubs and with most businesses in the country.
