Switching a dock from wood to plastic pallets
Wood against plastic
- Weight
- Plastic 3 to 15 lb light, up to 300 lb heavy; GMA wood about 37 lb
- Trips
- Plastic often 100 or more
- Cost
- Plastic can be roughly 10 times hardwood
- Repair
- Plastic is hard to repair
- ISPM 15
- Plastic exempt
Switch when the pallet comes back. Plastic is often described as lasting 100 trips or more, so it pays in a closed loop. It suits one-way trips less, and it costs roughly ten times as much as hardwood according to one encyclopedia entry.
This guide covers the weights, the handling changes, the fire question and the trailer maths for a whole-dock move, not a one-off buy.
What changes on the dock
| Check | Wood | Plastic |
|---|---|---|
| Weight in a stack | About 37 lb for a GMA pallet | About 3 to 15 lb light, up to 300 lb heavy |
| Surface | Can splinter | Splinter free and easier to sanitise |
| Export | ISPM 15 treatment and mark | Exempt |
| Fire | Treated as wood in sprinkler design | Listed and labelled pallets may be treated as wood; unlisted may raise the commodity class |
Moisture and splinters are why food and pharma docks switch first. A plastic deck wipes down. Nelson Company says recycled-material plastic pallets often meet general FDA requirements for food and pharmaceuticals, but a product that touches the pallet directly may need non-blended virgin HDPE.
The trailer maths of a whole-dock switch
Wood pallets for a given footprint do not nest. A nestable plastic pallet does when empty, which changes how empties are stored and returned. Nestable pallets can cut empty-pallet storage space by up to 75 percent. On a return trip one maker lists 1,260 standard-duty nestables on a 53 ft trailer. A rackable design lists 540.
Plan the return leg as well as the delivery. If empties come back in a closed loop, nestable designs make the return trip cheap. If not, count the pallets you will not see again.
A switch checklist
- List every footprint on the dock, not just the main one.
- Read racking load on every pallet that sits on a beam. Wood and plastic rate differently.
- Check conveyors and automated storage for a closed deck or a cruciform base.
- Ask the insurer about fire listings (FM 4996 or UL 2335) before the first truck.
- Decide who owns the loop: who counts, who repairs, who replaces.
- Pick one model per footprint and write the spec down for later orders.
Weights, trips and the cost gap, in numbers
| Measure | Wood | Plastic |
|---|---|---|
| Typical weight | About 37 lb for a GMA pallet | 3 to 15 lb when light, up to 300 lb when heavy |
| Life | Not stated in our sources | Often described as 100 trips or more |
| Cost against hardwood | Baseline | Roughly 10 times as much |
| Treatment for export | ISPM 15 heat treatment: 56 C core for 30 minutes | Exempt |
The 48 x 40 GMA footprint makes up about 30 percent of new US wood pallets, so most switches keep the footprint and change the material. Fastmarkets estimates 3.7 billion pallets were in circulation in the US in 2025, and that annual production rose from about 800 million before the pandemic to nearly one billion afterward. A plant moving one dock is a very small part of that stock, which is why the switch is planned as a pilot lane first.
From request to trailer
- Send the ship-to. A delivery ZIP, a footprint and a quantity, in pallets or in trailers. If you do not know a rating, describe the load.
- We match a model. We pick a maker and model whose published static, dynamic and racking load fit the load, and say so when only one maker fits.
- You get a count. The quote carries the maker's own per-trailer figure where one is published, and says plainly where none is.
- Papers and delivery. For food or pharma we attach the resin and colourant documents. A standing supply repeats the same line on every order.
What a complete request carries
- The footprint, in inches or millimetres, and whether it is fixed by a rack bay or a container.
- How many pallets, or how many 53 ft trailers.
- The ratings the load needs: static for the stack, dynamic for the move, racking only if the pallet sits on beams.
- Food, pharma, chemical, automotive, warehouse or export use, which sets the papers.
- One load now, or a standing supply with the same line on every order.
- Where it goes and when, and anything marked on the pallet: colour, logo, RFID tag.
Terms on this page
- Static load
- Weight a pallet carries at rest, or the bottom pallet carries when stacked. The highest of the three ratings.
- Racking load
- Weight a pallet carries bridging an open span in unsupported racking. Often the lowest rating.
- Nestable
- Empty pallets stack inside one another, cutting empty storage space by up to 75 percent.
- GMA pallet
- The 48 x 40 in North American standard footprint.
- HDPE
- High-density polyethylene, resin code 2. The most common resin in plastic pallets; tough and moisture resistant.
- ISPM 15
- The international standard for treating wood packaging against pests. Plastic pallets are outside it.
- Closed loop
- Pallets that travel between known sites and come back, so they are never lost to a downstream user.
- Cruciform base
- Bottom with a cross-shaped member as well as a perimeter, for strength and automated handling.
- Closed deck
- Solid top deck with no gaps; keeps small items from falling through.
- Rackable
- Rated to sit on rack beams, with a stated racking load.
Questions at the dock
Are plastic pallets better than wood?
Wood costs the least up front. Plastic is easier to sanitise, lighter than most wood, splinter free and often lasts 100 trips or more, but can cost around ten times as much and is hard to repair. Closed loops favour plastic.
Do I need a fire rating to switch?
Ask your insurer. A listed and labelled pallet may be treated as wood in sprinkler design; an unlisted one may not. See the fire rating guide.
Keep reading
Last reviewed 2026-11-12.