From a range, pallets might all appear the same: piles and piles of wood material with hollow centres and some brown stain. Up near, you'll note that no 2 pallets are the same.

Pallets are made of a variety of materials, like recycled wood, plastic and plywood. Pallets are being used to store, stack, secure and move materials in the process of handling machines such as forklifts, pallet jacks or conveyor belts, to be placed in rack or bulk space, or to be mounted in cargo trucks.

The pallet is the most usual choice for unit load, including pallets and loaded goods, usually protected by stretch wrapping, strapping, shrink wrap, adhesive, pallet collar, or other means of stability, including reusable wrappers, nets and straps.

Here are some popular types of pallets that you might find in a factory or at the back of your local supermarket:

Block Pallets

These pallets are famous for their four-way entrance, which means they can be reached by forklifts on all 4 corners. Block pallets may be constructed of timber, plywood or plastic and usually consist of 4 to 12 cylindrical wooden posts to support the top deck panels.

Block pallets are accessible both with and without bottom panels and can be used in a number of scenarios. This system uses both parallel and perpendicular stringers to improve the efficiency of handling.

Stringer Pallets

 2-way stringer pallets - These pallets take its title from the stringers—the panels running between both the upper and bottom deck frames to carry the load of the pallet. The 2-way pallet requires only 2 sides of the fork to access.

4-way stringer pallets: This kind of pallet is essentially the same as its 2-way equivalent but allows four-sided access when pallet racking. There are two main types of 4-way stringer pallets, those with block layouts and those with notched stringers, notched stringer pallets only allow 4-way entry with forklifts, and 2-way entry with pallet jacks.

Double Face Pallet

Pallets come in 2 specific styles: single-sided and double-sided. Double-sided pallets are made up of decks on both the upper and lower surfaces. The base deck improves the strength of the pallet and helps to uniformly spread the weight of the container

Double-face pallets are available in 2 kinds: rescindable and non-rescindable. Rescindable pallets can be turned and placed on either side. Usually, non-rescindable pallets have one layer with more tightly packed planks for storage and packaging.

Double Wing Pallet

The construction of this pallet consists of upper and lower deck boards reaching beyond stringer boards or stringers. This style gives the appearance of "wings" on the pallet side.

Solid Deck Pallet

The top of the solid deck pallets consists of one wide sheet of timber with no space. These pallets are deemed aesthetically pleasing to many consumers and are simple to wash and move. They also make it easy to move or store small items—with other forms of pallets, they might fall through cracks.