Inside pallet grades
Grade A vs Grade B, decided properly
The most common over-spend in pallet buying is Grade A for a job that Grade B does perfectly. The second most common is Grade B on a rack beam.
Request pricing
Everything marked with a star is required. The rest helps us quote faster.
Grade A (#1) pallets have original stringers and at most two replaced deck boards; Grade B (#2) pallets may carry companion stringers, plugs and up to four replaced boards. Both are structurally sound — the difference is repair history, consistency and appearance.
Specify Grade A for racking, automation and customer-facing loads. Specify Grade B for floor stacking, internal movement and one-way shipping. The price gap is typically $3 to $4.50 per unit.
The comparison
| Grade A (#1) | Grade B (#2) | |
|---|---|---|
| Stringers | All original, uncracked | Companion stringers and plugs permitted |
| Replaced deck boards | Maximum 2 | Maximum 4 |
| Missing boards | None | None |
| Top deck | 7 boards, complete | 5 – 7 boards, complete |
| Appearance | Clean, dry, minimal staining | Weathered and stained permitted |
| Dimensional consistency | High | Moderate; companion stringers add thickness |
| Racking | Yes, within quoted rating | Not recommended |
| Conveyors and automation | Yes | No |
| Typical price | $8.50 – $13.50 | $5.50 – $9.00 |
| Typical remaining lives | 3 – 5 | 1 – 3 |
How to choose in thirty seconds
Three questions settle almost every case.
- Does it go on a rack beam? If yes, Grade A. This is a safety decision, not an economic one, and it is the one place we will not flex.
- Does it touch automation? Conveyors, AS/RS, wrapping machines and robotic palletisers all care about thickness consistency. Companion stringers catch. Grade A.
- Does a customer see it? If the pallet arrives in a retail back room or a showroom, appearance is part of your brand. Grade A.
If the answer to all three is no — internal floor movement, one-way shipping, storage in your own yard — Grade B does the job and saves you meaningful money at volume. On 2,000 pallets a year the difference is roughly $7,000.
The grey areas
Two situations come up repeatedly and neither has a clean answer.
Mixed loads
Some operations run Grade A outbound and Grade B internally, and end up with both in the same stack. If that is you, mark them. A painted stringer end or a stencil costs almost nothing and prevents a Grade B pallet reaching a rack beam by accident.
"Premium" and "A+"
Some yards sell a grade above A — no repairs at all, matched species, uniform colour. We do stock it occasionally and will quote it when asked, but be clear about why you want it. If the answer is appearance, it is worth the premium. If the answer is strength, it is not: a Grade A pallet with two replaced boards is not weaker than one with none.
A worked comparison on real volume
The abstract argument is easy. This is what it does to an actual budget.
| Destination | Units | Correct grade | If all Grade A | If right-sized |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rack storage | 1,400 | A | $15,050 | $15,050 |
| Automated line | 800 | A | $8,600 | $8,600 |
| Customer-facing outbound | 600 | A | $6,450 | $6,450 |
| Internal floor movement | 1,900 | B | $20,425 | $13,775 |
| One-way outbound | 1,000 | B | $10,750 | $7,250 |
| Yard and dunnage | 300 | Core | $3,225 | $1,140 |
| Total | 6,000 | $64,500 | $52,265 |
Twelve thousand dollars a year, from an afternoon spent listing where pallets actually go. No negotiation, no supplier change, no operational compromise — the rack and automation lines still get Grade A, because that is a safety decision rather than an economic one.
Where the line genuinely blurs
Three cases where the answer is not obvious and where we have changed our own advice over time.
Semi-automated wrapping
A turntable wrapper is far more tolerant than a conveyor. Grade B usually works, until the day somebody replaces the turntable with an inline system and nobody revisits the pallet specification. If a wrapper upgrade is on any roadmap, specify Grade A now.
Pallets that get racked occasionally
Every warehouse has this: stock nominally for floor storage that gets racked when the floor is full. The honest answer is that a grade rule enforced by hope is not a rule. Either mark the grades visibly or buy Grade A for everything in that area.
Long outbound transits
A Grade B pallet is fine for a one-way trip across town. On a five-day transit with three handling points it is less fine, because each handling event is a chance for a companion stringer to catch. Above about two days in transit we would specify Grade A even for one-way freight.
Questions people actually ask
Is Grade B unsafe?
Can Grade B be upgraded to Grade A?
What is a #1 and #2 pallet?
Do you sell Grade C?
Can I buy a mixed load of A and B?
Is Grade B ever the safer choice?
Do you ever refuse to sell Grade B?
How much does grade affect remaining life?
What if my supplier's Grade B is better than another's Grade A?
Let's keep your pallets in the loop
Whether you have 40 broken cores behind the dock or need 4,000 Grade A pallets a month, the conversation starts the same way.