Is a ‘1AA’ Pallet Better than an ‘A1++’? Or Does a ‘Sam’s Club Premium’ Trump Them Both?
You like potato and I like potahto
You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto.
Let’s call the whole thing off
(From “Let’s Call the Whole Thing off”; Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin)
One positive about recycled pallet grades is that they offer pallet recyclers the opportunity to create unique and perhaps even enticing brands for a product line that is usually bogged down with such unglamorous terms as generic or fungible. And just maybe that branding and differentiation allows them to command a slight premium from customers looking for a little extra – provided they can back it up by consistently meeting quality expectations. After all, who wouldn’t prefer the Sam’s Club Premium to pallet grade names based on alpha-numeric alphabet soup?
The quest for competitive advantage and making the most of what you have is ongoing. One sales professional tells a story of being called to a repair table one day. A repairer had a core on his table with an unusual 12-inch wide top lead board. Actually it looks to be a recovered piece of IKEA-like bookcase shelving, presswood with a faux vinyl woodgrain finish, complete with the little pinholes for the adjustable book shelves. So his question is whether he should leave the piece on or take it off and replace it. The ever resourceful sales professional says to leave it on, and he’ll sell it for an extra 10 cents!
Humor aside, used pallet grades can seem like a nightmare. “The whole issue is a joke,” the same salesperson told me in a more cynical tone. “Grade A’s, Grade B’s, Grade 1, 2, & 3’s, Grade
1' with 6" leads, Grade 1’s with 4" leads. 7 boards on top over 5 on bottom. Or 6 minimum on top and over 4 on bottom. Grade 3 pallets – basically a 48 x 40 partial four way that could make it onto a truck. Some allow paint, some say no paint. Some say all boards must be flat others allow for thick and thin boards.”
In defense of that diversity, the range of terminology and categories for recycled pallets makes perfect sense. Over the years, grades for recycled pallets have often emerged locally, as pallet recyclers optimized their offerings to better serve the key customers in their local markets, based on the composition of cores they had been acquiring.
Trying to get a little better perspective on used pallet grades, I reached out to Mark White, Ph.D., of White & Company and professor emeritus at Virginia Tech. White is a long-time standards development leader and delegate. “I chaired the NWPCA committee that drafted this white wood specifications,” White recalled. “It was a struggle to get to what we have. Repairers on the committee were generally opposed to a standard, as the industry felt it constrained their options. As you can see we ended up with a very general description of quality.”
White added, “I am unaware of any other North American Industry or consensus standard for white wood repair. Many companies or users have derived their own descriptions but most are modifications of the Industry NWPCA or ANSI standard, which are identical.”
While there would be a certain attractiveness to a greater deal of standardization that would better provide the opportunity to compare apples to apples in the marketplace, local suppliers have prospered without it. Local customers, through trial and error, come to understand the value propositions of local vendors, and settle into relationships of sorts (at least until a competitor lowers prices by a nickel). Because pallets traditionally were not shipped more than a few hundred miles, buyers of pallets gain experience with local vendors.
However, what happens when you are not talking about local recycled pallet markets but national networks of pallet supply, and national level pallet procurement – involving far too many players for someone to just learn through trial and error? According to Paul Messinger of The Pallet Alliance, for a national approach the development of a common vocabulary and understanding is critical.
“Yes, it’s absolutely true that suppliers grade their pallets in various ways, even suppliers in the same regions, or even on the same block!” acknowledged Messinger. “So, yes, it’s absolutely necessary to get clarity on the grading process. Though you may not, realistically, be able to travel to each vendor’s site that you are talking to, it’s extremely important to develop a vocabulary that gives you a way to communicate and clarify how each individual vendor (and customer) views their grading process.”
If on-site, the best way to do that is to go through the sorted and unsorted pallets, grade by grade, and discuss
aspects of them. If not on-site, and you are not sure that there is clarity, sometimes it can be helpful for the vendor
to take pictures of their sort and send it to you for assessment or to clarify what they do in a specific circumstance. Or, sometimes, it might be helpful to send a picture to the vendor to clarify what you mean.
Steve Tacker of PalletMaxx agrees that the diversity of grades isn’t an overly large impediment to serving the market because smart recyclers know there will be differences. He explained, “I used to work at IFCO and even they used different terminology depending on the market they are in.”
Tacker stated, “When I deal with a pallet company that I am not familiar with and I need a quote I will verbally say that I am looking for a #1 or an A grade with 6” or 4" leads and then will give more detail if needed, ie., food grade clean or specific deck thicknesses. If I feel there are any questions I will email a PDF file.”
A bigger challenge, Tacker noted, comes from customers. “They may have no idea what they are buying,” Tacker observed. They may say they are buying a 40×48 and so there is always some Pallet 101 with the customer. Usually the best bet is to put eyes on what they are buying.”
Messinger sums up the challenge. “Less is not more when trying to develop standards in national terms,” he concluded. “The more work you do to develop clarity, the better chance you have to be clear … and be successful!”
