- 27 - 



Of 24,200 pallet boxes used commercially in Washington during the 

 1957-58 season, three-tenths of 1 percent of them were damaged beyond repair; 

 2.7 percent incurred repairable damage, most of which was minor; and 7 percent 

 of those using corrugated fiberboard liners showed liner damage. 



The incidence of damage beyond repair to pallet boxes was small. The 

 pallet boxes generally were of rather heavy construction and durable enough 

 to stand up under field usage. When a pallet box was discarded because it was 

 totally damaged, it was generally the result of an accident. For example, 

 48 out of the 67 discarded, resulted from falls off of motor trucks, tipping 

 of high stacks by wind, etc. The other 19 resulted from carelessness or the 

 failure to operate handling and dumping equipment satisfactorily. 



Causes of damage associated generally with faulty material and poor 

 construction: 63 percent. The balance, or 37 percent, was damaged during 

 normal handling, storage, and dumping - 



Although only 3 of the 8 plants used pallet box liners, the commercial 

 boxes with liners exceeded half of the commercial number in use. The liner 

 was favored as a means of reducing bruising. However, these liners were not 

 sufficiently wetproof after the hot sun had melted their wax coating and about 

 60 percent of the damage was incurred because of moisture. Wide spacing between 

 the boards in the frame of the pallet box allowed the liners to bulge out, and 

 accounted for 20 percent of the liner damage. Wind, rodents, and , other factors 

 were responsible for the remainder of the damage. 



COMPARATIVE COSTS OF DIFFERENT METHODS 

 OF HANDLING PALLET BOXES 



One of the objectives of the research with pallet boxes was to determine, 

 through properly conducted time studies, the labor requirements for handling 

 apples. The resulting data are to be made available to operators of orchards 

 and packing plants as criteria for choosing pallet boxes and handling methods 

 and equipment for these pallet boxes. The nature of the present report in- 

 cludes the results of this study to date and is far from complete. Full data, 

 however, will be published upon completion of the project. 



The handling of large numbers of pallet boxes was studied through the 

 various cycles of operation. Comparative data are presented in table 4 for the 

 pallet box which is 48- x 48- x 29-inches in size, the deepest of the pallet 

 boxes found in commercial use, 48- x 47^- x 36-inches high, and the 48-box unit 

 loads of standard boxes of apples handled on 40- x 48-inch pallets. 



Methods of Handling 



In the orchard pallet boxes were handled with tractors with rear mounted 

 forks. These vehicles were used to distribute empty pallet boxes to pickers, to 

 move filled ones to the edge of the orchard, and to load them on different 



