Pallet grades, plainly
A grade says how much repair a used pallet carries. Grade A has none, Grade B has been repaired, and Grade C has several repairs and rough looks.
The three used grades
Grades come from the pallet trade, and the same grade can look a little different from one yard to the next. These are the plain meanings. Each links to a page with a pallet you can turn over.
| Grade | Also called | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Grade A | Grade 1 | Has not had repairs and needs none. |
| Grade B | Grade 2 | Repaired with replaced deck boards, plates or plugs. |
| Grade C | Grade 3 | Poor appearance, usually several repairs, and deck boards may not be fully intact. |
Beyond the grades
- Combo. Remanufactured from a mix of recycled and new lumber, stronger and more consistent than a used pallet and cheaper than an all-new build. Combo pallets.
- New. Built from all-new lumber and never shipped on, usually to a spec sheet. New and custom.
- Core. A used pallet a shipper no longer needs, handed on for inspection, repair, dismantling or grinding. Pallet cores.
- Mixed load. Not a grade at all. An unsorted pile of more than one size or grade, which is what a dock collects over weeks before anyone sorts it.
The repairs behind a Grade B
Three repairs account for most Grade B pallets. A Plug is a short board, anywhere from 6 to 24 inches long, nailed alongside a cracked stringer. A plate is a metal nail plate that holds a split board together. A Companion stringer is a full-length board fixed beside a damaged stringer to restore its strength. The drawing above shows all three with the repair in yellow. For Grade B, deck board spacing must be at least 4 inches and a stringer may carry repairs or plugs longer than 1 1/4 inches. How a pallet gets repaired.
Which grade for which load
| Load | A sensible start | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Food and produce | Grade A | Nothing nailed on, and the cleanest deck. Keep it dry: moisture under 20% will not support mold. |
| Auto parts out the door | Grade B, or Grade A for visible loads | A plugged stringer carries the same load; the customer's receiving rules decide. |
| Inside the plant, between cells | Grade C | Looks do not matter and it costs less. |
| A steady run that needs to be even | Combo | Even boards and fewer surprises. |
| Crates abroad | Heat-treated stock | The mark matters more than the grade. Heat-treated pallets. |
A quick way to grade a pallet yourself
Walk around it
Look at every board end. Cracked ends and missing corners are the first signs of a lower grade.
Count the repairs
None means Grade A. A few tidy plates and plugs mean Grade B. Many, or loose boards, mean Grade C.
Press the middle
Stand the pallet on its side and lean on a deck board. Flex is a bad sign.
Check the gaps
Grade B needs deck board spacing of at least four inches. Wider gaps mean boards are missing.
Why the names mislead
The letters sound like school marks, and buyers sometimes take Grade B to mean second-rate. For most freight a Grade B is first-rate: it was repaired to carry its load and does. Appearance is what separates the grades, and appearance matters only when the customer sees the pallet or a machine reads it.
Reading a grade on a quote
When a seller names a grade, ask two things: who decided it, and by what rule. Millwood and iGPS publish grading guides, and many recyclers follow them, but a grade assigned by a buyer's inspector at the dock can differ from the one the seller wrote down. Agree the standard before the first load, put it on the order, and settle disagreements by looking at the pallets rather than arguing from memory.
Count how many of ten sampled pallets fall below the grade; one or two is an ordinary tolerance for a large lot, and five means the lot was mislabeled. Agree in advance what happens to the ones that miss: a credit, a swap, or a return. A written line saves a phone call and keeps a good relationship intact.
Combo, new, mixed and core
The grade letters cover used pallets only. New pallets have no grade because they have no history, combo pallets are rebuilt to a pattern, mixed loads are by definition unsorted, and a core is a pallet waiting for a verdict. Treat those four as categories of their own and ask for them by name.
A note on photographs
A photo of a single pallet, on its side, with the deck boards visible and a tape measure across the width, tells a buyer about grade and size at once. Take one for each lot. It costs ten seconds and saves a long conversation.
Grading is a conversation
Because the grade names are a trade convention, sellers and buyers sometimes read them differently. A seller's Grade B may be a buyer's Grade C. The way to close the gap is a sample: set aside a dozen pallets from the lot and agree on what each grade means by looking at them together.
Pricing by grade
As a rule, expect each step down in grade to lower the value of a pallet, and each step up to raise it, but how much depends on size, count and demand. Ask the buyer how they rank grades and what spread they use between them.
Two dockside habits
Keep sound pallets under cover and apart from broken ones. Those two habits, more than any grading skill, determine what a stack is worth when a buyer comes.
On this page
- Grade A pallets Grade A, also called grade 1, is a used pallet with no repairs and none needed. What that means on a Detroit dock and which loads it suits.
- Grade B pallets Grade B, also called grade 2, is a used pallet repaired with new deck boards, plates or plugs. Which repairs are allowed and where it works.
- Grade C pallets Grade C, also called grade 3, is a used pallet with poor appearance and several repairs. What it is good for and when it belongs in the cores pile.