Bespoke export pallets

When bespoke earns its cost

Three situations come up repeatedly. Awkward single items — machinery, fabrications, long goods — that overhang any standard deck. Poor container utilisation, where a made-to-measure footprint turns a part-empty container into a full one and pays for itself in freight. And loads that need support at specific points rather than an even deck.

Outside those cases a standard footprint is usually cheaper, quicker and easier to replace at the far end, and we will say so.

What we need to design around

Work from the load and the journey, not from a pallet drawing. If you can send a sketch or the item dimensions, that is more useful than a specification you have reverse-engineered.

• Load dimensions, weight and where the weight sits
• Whether it is stacked, and what goes on top
• Container or trailer type, and whether fill is the constraint
• Handling at both ends — forklift, pump truck, crane, sling points
• Destination, and whether treated and marked wood packaging is required
• Whether the pallet needs to be reusable or is single-trip

Treatment and marking on bespoke work

Bespoke pallets sit under exactly the same plant-health rules as standard ones. Where the movement requires treated and marked wood packaging, so does the bespoke pallet — and so does any timber bracing, cradling or dunnage made up with it, which is easy to overlook on a one-off job.