2608 Chapter 22 



growth in pallet demand. By 2030, pallets will account for about 88 percent of 

 the lumber, 85 percent of the veneer and plywood, and 67 percent of the 

 hardboard used in shipping (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service 

 1980). 



Readers interested in analyses of pallet markets in particular industries will 

 find the following publications useful: 



Industry Reference 



Food Strobel and Wallin (1969) 



Steel Carlson (1966) 



Brewing Lucas (1969) 



Defense Lucas and Wallin (1969) 



Of the pallets produced annually in the United States, about 65 percent are 

 classed as reusable (permanent warehouse or exchange type), while 35 percent 

 are expendable, for one-way use. About 98 percent of the reusable pallets are 

 made of wood. Of the expendable shipping pallets, about 80 percent are sawn 

 wood or plywood; the remaining 20 percent are of fiberboard, plastics, or 

 combinations of these materials (Stern 1977c). 



From a study in the Maryland-Pennsylvania-West Virginia area. Mount 

 (1971) found that over 53 percent of the pallets sold were shipped further than 

 200 miles. About 70 percent were sold by the owner-operator or a company 

 salesman; 14 percent were sold through brokers, 9 percent by competitive 

 bidding, and 7 percent through advertising. 



Readers interested in mathematical models of economic trends in the industry 

 will find useful Schuler and Wallin 's (1980) econometric model, and Wallin 's^ 

 analysis of markets for pallets and likely future trends. 



PALLET POOLS 



Strobel and Wallin ( 1 969) consider a wooden pallet system most applicable to 

 materials handling in the food industry — from the raw materials, through manu- 

 facture and distribution to the retail store. Systems such as plastic or fiber slip 

 sheets (on which loads are handled with special forklift trucks) and clamp trucks 

 (that grip loads from the sides) may be more efficient in a particular situation, 

 but are not applicable system- wide. To make the wooden pallet system work, a 

 pallet exchange (pallet pool) is needed. One of the most difficult problems in 

 managing such an exchange system is maintaining and policing quality of the 

 pallets exchanged. 



Pallet pools may operate within any industry or among industry groups, but 

 are principally employed by the food, can and bottle manufacturing, brewery, 

 and refractory industries.. National Pallet Leasing Systems, Inc. commercially 

 operates such a pallet pool in the United States (Stern 1977c). Similar pools have 

 operated for many years in Australia and during the late 1970's were launched in 

 Canada and the United Kingdom. 



