Large Pallet UK distribution ?

Large Pallet UK distribution ?

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Discussion

SagMan

Original Poster:

622 posts

219 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
Please can anyone recommend logistics company who are prepared to distribute pallets throughout U.K. Pallet footprint will be up to 4.2m x 1.6m and May way 200 kg. I've had discussions with Tuffnells, TNT, DPD and a few others but struggling to find partner.

Thanks for any help

Twig62

746 posts

95 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
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Palletways ?

Super Slo Mo

5,368 posts

197 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
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Twig62 said:
Palletways ?
Not for pallets that big. They are massive.

OP I am assuming these pallets are empty given the weight you are quoting?

I don't have a suggestion really, you might be better talking to someone in general haulage rather than pallets as they may be better suited to odd sized loads.
Stobards would be the obvious one, but there will be plenty of others. People with curtain sliders, rather than solid sided trucks.

Old Tyke

288 posts

85 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
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SagMan said:
Please can anyone recommend logistics company who are prepared to distribute pallets throughout U.K. Pallet footprint will be up to 4.2m x 1.6m and May way 200 kg. I've had discussions with Tuffnells, TNT, DPD and a few others but struggling to find partner.

Thanks for any help
I've no recommendations but being in the transport industry that footprint is going to cost you a lot of expense and headaches. Standard artic load bed width is just under 2.5m so you've no way of putting those side by side because of their depth. As a standard pallet is 1m wide by 1.2m deep what that means is you'll have to pay for TEN pallet spaces for your ONE pallet if you want to load them from the side. You could reduce that down to FOUR pallet spaces if you can load via the back doors and put the pallet long ways on up against the headboard of the trailer but that's not going to be an option for an overnight pallet hub operation and you wouldn't be able to load it sideways either because the upper deck supports on the double deck trailers would mean that 600mm would be sticking out.

Is there any way you can reduce the depth of the footprint to 1.2m? That would open up more options. Also can you reduce the width/length to under 2 - 2.25m? That would open up more options too as you could potentially use an upright pallet frame and have your product vertical. Most of the double deck trailers have open sections at the front or rear to accommodate tall pallets. You would have to have the pallet frames made but if you can reduce the footprint to 1 or 2 standard pallet spaces you will probably find that it works out to be the cheaper option.

If you can't reduce the width/length at all, what's the potential for double or even triple stacking the product with suitable pallet crates? What's the product and what's the total approximate height including the pallet? This is going to be what you need to look at next to save costs if you can't reduce the footprint. 200kg should be at least double stackable with a custom pallet frame and you might even get away without needing one depending on the shape and squishyness of the product. More details needed...

Edited by Old Tyke on Sunday 26th March 20:47

Super Slo Mo

5,368 posts

197 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
I reckon 200kg isn't far off the weight of an empty pallet. I've broken up pallets smaller than that (about 3.2x2.5 m) which were almost beyond me to even move, let alone lift and carry. 2 of us could maul them about the yard.
They were used to carry agricultural machinery.

Edit to add: you will fit 3 of these to a standard artic trailer I reckon.

Edited by Super Slo Mo on Sunday 26th March 20:41

marcusgrant

1,445 posts

91 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
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Linkline maybe

Old Tyke

288 posts

85 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
Super Slo Mo said:
Twig62 said:
Palletways ?
Not for pallets that big. They are massive.

OP I am assuming these pallets are empty given the weight you are quoting?

I don't have a suggestion really, you might be better talking to someone in general haulage rather than pallets as they may be better suited to odd sized loads.
Stobards would be the obvious one, but there will be plenty of others. People with curtain sliders, rather than solid sided trucks.
Stobrats won't be interested. They will quote but it will be astronomical and they'll just sub the work out to someone else for buttons and pocket the difference, same with DHL and other big logistics companies.

At 200kg each, obviously not empty pallets. He isn't going to be using grade A pallet quality like Cheps if the product is only 200kg. The pallets will be B's and probably not weigh more than 10 or 15 kgs each.

Super Slo Mo

5,368 posts

197 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
Old Tyke said:
Super Slo Mo said:
Twig62 said:
Palletways ?
Not for pallets that big. They are massive.

OP I am assuming these pallets are empty given the weight you are quoting?

I don't have a suggestion really, you might be better talking to someone in general haulage rather than pallets as they may be better suited to odd sized loads.
Stobards would be the obvious one, but there will be plenty of others. People with curtain sliders, rather than solid sided trucks.
Stobrats won't be interested. They will quote but it will be astronomical and they'll just sub the work out to someone else for buttons and pocket the difference, same with DHL and other big logistics companies.

At 200kg each, obviously not empty pallets. He isn't going to be using grade A pallet quality like Cheps if the product is only 200kg. The pallets will be B's and probably not weigh more than 10 or 15 kgs each.
I don't think so. Not at the size of the pallets. Of course it depends what they are carrying. If it's celotex or something then maybe they are ultra light.
As mentioned above, the ones I used that were similarly sized were well over 100kg empty.

Old Tyke

288 posts

85 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
Super Slo Mo said:
I don't think so. Not at the size of the pallets. Of course it depends what they are carrying. If it's celotex or something then maybe they are ultra light.
As mentioned above, the ones I used that were similarly sized were well over 100kg empty.
But you were moving agricultural machinery which is going to weigh tonnes, not 200kg, so it would be a grade A quality to take the weight without collapsing hence why it weighed so much on its own. This other guy's product is only 200kg so for the size of the footprint can probably use a grade B pallet as the weight sounds like it will be distributed across all of the pallet area.

Another issue is how he's going to load and upload it. At that depth he's going to need a specialised pallet truck to be able to get far enough underneath it or a FLT with fork extensions which aren't cheap. Those are going to be needed at both ends. If he opts to go for back door loading and position them up against the trailer headboard, it's going to need the trailer to be on a loading dock as it'll be impossible to turn around inside the trailer and obviously not fit on a tail lift either.

If there's no way to reduce the footprint then realistically he's going to be needing a flatbed vehicle and hiab.

Super Slo Mo

5,368 posts

197 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
True enough. I can't see the pallet weighing 15 kg on its own though.

Nevertheless that still doesn't get around the massive issues regarding getting it on or off a truck though.

Like you say it's going to be difficult and expensive regardless.

Edwin Strohacker

3,879 posts

85 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
I can help you. Drop me a pm if you like & I'll take a few details. I'll either take your work if I can or point you in the right direction. Everything is possible.

citizensm1th

8,371 posts

136 months

Old Tyke

288 posts

85 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
quotequote all
Super Slo Mo said:
True enough. I can't see the pallet weighing 15 kg on its own though.

Nevertheless that still doesn't get around the massive issues regarding getting it on or off a truck though.

Like you say it's going to be difficult and expensive regardless.
Grade B pallets are super flimsy and will fall apart if there's more than a light breeze blowing, but they're often sufficient for light items if all you need is a bit of space underneath to get some forks under. Even the double or triple length ones don't weigh much and you can easily move them about manually. A chep, on the other hand, being a grade A pallet, is going to give you a good work out moving it about even though it's only half or even a third of the size.

Questions the OP needs to answer :

1. What's the product?
2. Can the product be split/reduced in size?
3. How tall is the product?
4. Can the footprint be reduced by turning the product sideways or vertical and potentially using a single or double A-frame pallet to reduce the depth? (see pics below)
5a. Is the product stable enough to be double or triple stacked without requiring a crate or framework making?
5b. if the answer to 5a is no, could it be stacked if contained in a suitable crate or framework?
6. if the answers to 2 and 4 above are both no, how do you plan to load and offload it, given the limitations of pallet truck and fork length?
7. does the loading point and all the delivery points have access to a loading dock that the truck can reverse on to?
8a. how many pallets will you be sending per week?
8b. how many pallets will be going to the same customer?
8c. how spread out over the UK are your customers? all in one general location?
8d. how fast do you need to get them there? could you wait a week or so until a truck is going in that direction or do you need it there next day?

Single and double A-frame pallets :

http://www.palletguy.com/slides/single-a-frame.jpg
http://www.palletguy.com/slides/double-a-frame.jpg

Edited by Old Tyke on Sunday 26th March 21:56

Sixpackpert

4,538 posts

213 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Old Tyke said:
Stobrats won't be interested. They will quote but it will be astronomical and they'll just sub the work out to someone else for buttons and pocket the difference, same with DHL and other big logistics companies.

At 200kg each, obviously not empty pallets. He isn't going to be using grade A pallet quality like Cheps if the product is only 200kg. The pallets will be B's and probably not weigh more than 10 or 15 kgs each.
DHL have now closed their UK pallet business.

red_slr

17,123 posts

188 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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I am in haulage PM me if you want but might not be for us but I can always take a look.

SagMan

Original Poster:

622 posts

219 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
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Sincere apologies for lack of response, just returned from a minor op.

Thanks for all responses, I will go through in detail this week.

I have cartons for one off product (it weighs 9kgs without packaging) then pallet for multiple products.

Many thanks again

A500leroy

5,085 posts

117 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
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http://bridgemeredistribution.co.uk


These are the guys we use

NathanJones

713 posts

212 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
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The size is not a problem as only they only weigh 200kgs - Try Palletline 80 different carriers they will be able to sort you out a decent price

https://www.palletline.co.uk/


Eddie Strohacker

3,879 posts

85 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
quotequote all
Palletline won't touch anything that isn't 1x1.2m. The whole thing is set up to take standard pallets & incidentally is very. very expensive for what you get unless you're willing to put hundreds of pallets in every day.

Old Tyke

288 posts

85 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
quotequote all
NathanJones said:
The size is not a problem as only they only weigh 200kgs - Try Palletline 80 different carriers they will be able to sort you out a decent price

https://www.palletline.co.uk/
LOL. They won't. Palletline won't touch it for all the reasons listed above.