thumb|right|An Australian Standard Pallet made from pine.

Australian standard pallets are square softwood or hardwood pallets that are standard in Australia and non-standard anywhere else in the world.

They are 1165 × 1165 mm in size and fit exactly in the RACE container of the Australian railways. They are ill-suited for the standard and ISO shipping containers used around the globe. They can be manufactured in hardwood or softwood, where hardwood is good for durability, weather tolerance and very heavy loads of over 2 tonne. 1165 × 1165 mm softwood pallets can also be manufactured using lighter timber suitable for use as a lightweight pallet using 19mm boards (up to 1 tonne) or 25mm boards (up to 2 tonne). Australian standard pallets are extensively used in Australian storage and warehousing as racking pallets because they can be removed from transport directly onto warehouse racking for storage.

The majority of Australian business will use a softwood pallet. Pricing ranges from $15.00 AU to $19.00 AU (2019) for a softwood standard size pallet, based on quantities.

Use

The Australian standard pallet is designed for use with the RACE container of Australian railways. Originally the pallet was specified at 46 × 46 inches (from a nominal size of 48 × 48 inches, or 4 ft × 4 ft), but this has been metricated to the marginally smaller 1165 × 1165 mm dimensions. Two pallets will fit closely side by side in a RACE container. They can be stacked on two levels and one container can thus hold 20 pallets. A standard railway wagon carries three containers and can thus hold 60 pallets.

Two-thirds of palletized transport within Australia uses the 1165 × 1165 standard pallet. For external use, where goods are to be shipped in ISO containers, an 1100 × 1100 mm pallet is used. This is a pallet size widely used by Japan and Korea, but is also specified in the Australian standard for pallets.

During the 1970s, Australia converted to the metric system. Australia pushed ahead with metrication quickly, and did this with less fuss and opposition than occurred in other countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom. In order to proceed rapidly, a quick decision was needed on pallet sizes before decisions on metrication of packaging could be made. Because of this, it was decided to retain the Australian standard pallet, despite it being peculiar to Australia.

A 2002 report commissioned by the Australian Department of Transport and Regional Services examined the possibility of replacing the Australian standard pallet with the ISO standard size of 1200×1000 mm. Two-thirds of Australia's trade is with countries that use either this size, or the near equivalent US standard size of 48×40 inches so changing to this standard would be less costly than to other standard pallet sizes. The report concluded that making this change would be worth a net present value of $2.5 billion at a discount rate of 30%, or $5.1 billion at discount rate of 20%.

Despite the analysis in the report, Australia continues to use the Australian standard pallet.

References

Bibliography

  • Acton, A. P., "Packaging and Packaged Goods", Metrication, the Australian Experience: Proceedings of the North American-Australian Metric Conference, pp. 127–140, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, April 1975.
  • Review of Domestic and International Pallet Standards and Ongoing Operational and Cost Implications to Australian and International Logistics: Final Report, Strategic design + Development, 21 March 2002.
  • Ackerman, Kenneth B., Practical Handbook of Warehousing, Springer, 1997 .
  • Leblanc, Rick, "Another sneak attack, war heralded pallet in industry", Pallet Enterprise, May 2002.
  • Raballand, Gaël; Aldaz-Carroll, Enrique, How Do Differing Standards Increase Trade Costs? The case of pallets, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3519, February 2005.
  • Another version of this paper published in The World Economy, vol. 30, iss. 4, pp. 605–702, April 2007.
  • Pallet racking operation and maintenance guidance note WorkSafe Victoria