Not every e-commerce order fits in a jiffy bag. If you sell to trade customers, ship wholesale orders to retailers, or send stock into a fulfilment centre, a lot of your outbound volume probably goes on a pallet.

That is where cardboard pallet boxes earn their keep. One big, sturdy box that sits on a pallet, takes a lot of weight and keeps everything together from your warehouse to their door.

Get the box right and your pallet network does the heavy lifting. Get it wrong and you pay for wasted space, surcharges and damaged stock. This guide covers how to size pallet boxes for UK pallet networks, what a dispatch really costs, how to keep loads secure, and why buying used pallet boxes is the right thing to do.

What is a cardboard pallet box?

A cardboard pallet box (also called a pallet container, bulk box or gaylord) is a large corrugated box designed to sit on a pallet. Most are double or triple wall board, which gives them the strength to hold hundreds of kilos and survive being forklifted, loaded and unloaded several times on their journey.

Browse our full range of cardboard pallet boxes, or for a deeper dive into board grades and styles, read our complete buyer’s guide to cardboard pallet boxes.

For e-commerce businesses, they are mainly used for:

• Wholesale and B2B orders going out on a single pallet
• Sending stock into Amazon FBA or a 3PL warehouse
• Consolidating lots of smaller cartons or loose items into one secure unit
• Bulky or awkward products that would cost a fortune as multiple parcels

Pallet box sizing for UK pallet networks

Pallet networks such as Palletline, Palletways and Pall-Ex charge by pallet space, not by how full your box is. So the aim is simple: fill the space you are paying for, without going over the limits.

Footprint

The UK standard pallet is 1200mm x 1000mm. The Euro pallet is 1200mm x 800mm (we stock Euro pallet boxes too). Your pallet box should sit on the pallet with no overhang. Overhanging boxes get crushed, snag on other pallets and can be refused or charged as oversized.

For a UK pallet, a box footprint of around 1150mm x 950mm leaves room for wrap and corner boards.

Height and weight

Pallet sizes on a network refer to the height and weight of the loaded pallet, measured from the ground up, including the pallet itself (usually around 150mm). The footprint stays the same whichever size you book. Typical limits look like this, though they vary between networks:

Always check your own network before you choose a box. Some cap a half pallet at 1m while others allow 1.2m. That 20cm difference is the gap between paying for a half or a full pallet space.

What does an e-commerce pallet dispatch truly cost?

When people price up pallet deliveries, they usually focus on the network rate. But the real cost per dispatch is everything that continues on the lorry:

• The pallet itself
• The pallet box
• Stretch wrap, strapping and edge protectors
• The pallet delivery charge

Buy in bulk to bring your cost per order down

If you dispatch pallets every week, buying boxes one or two at a time is the expensive way to do it. Ordering by the pallet load gets you a lower unit price and means fewer deliveries to your door. Work out how many dispatches you send in a typical month, add a buffer for busy periods, and order to match.

Why choose used pallet boxes?

Used pallet boxes have already done one job, usually carrying components or ingredients into a manufacturer. At Reuseabox, we collect them, inspect them by hand and get them back into use.

Here is why that makes sense for e-commerce:

They cost a lot less

Used pallet boxes typically cost around half the price of new. For a box you are going to send away with every order, that matters. Some of our used cardboard pallet boxes even come supplied with pallets, so that is two items off your list in one go.

They are built tough

Pallet boxes are made for industrial supply chains, so they are often heavier duty than they need to be for a single trip. A box built to carry bulk goods into a factory will happily carry your wholesale order to a retailer. Every box we sell is checked for strength, cleanliness and damage before it goes anywhere.

Reuse beats recycling

Recycling a cardboard box means pulping it, processing it and making a new one, all of which uses energy, water and transport. Reusing a box skips all of that and gets more life out of the material that already exists. It sits higher on the waste hierarchy for a reason, and it is why Reuseabox has helped UK businesses reuse over 15 million boxes since 2015.

Your customers notice

More B2B buyers are asking suppliers about packaging and sustainability. Shipping in used boxes is a simple, visible way to show you are reducing your impact, and it gives your sales team something real to talk about.

A little character, no compromise on performance

A used box might have an old label or a bit of print on it. For a pallet box going into a warehouse or a trade customer’s loading bay, that rarely matters. What matters is that it is strong, the right size and arrives in one piece.

How to stack and load for security

A pallet on a network does not go straight from you to your customer. It travels via a central hub, where it is unloaded, sorted and reloaded onto another lorry, and it can pass through several pairs of hands along the way.

That’s why your load needs to cope with all that. Here are our top tips for ensuring your pallet box gets to its end user safely:

• Choose the right board grade. Double wall works for lighter loads. For heavier or denser products, go triple wall.
• Fill the box. Empty space lets products shift and weakens the box walls. Use void fill, or choose a shorter box.
• Heavy at the bottom. Keep the centre of gravity low so the pallet is not top heavy.
• No overhang. The box should sit fully on the pallet deck.
• Strap the box to the pallet. Two straps in each direction stops the box sliding off the deck.
• Protect the corners. Corner boards spread the pressure from straps and protect the edges from forklift knocks.
• Use a lid. A fitted lid keeps out dust and moisture and adds strength to the top of the box.
• Label it clearly.

If you are stacking two pallet boxes to make a full pallet, make sure the bottom box can take the weight of the top one, and band the two together so they move as one unit.

Quick checklist for e-commerce pallet dispatches

• Check your pallet network’s height and weight limits
• Pick a box footprint that sits just inside the pallet edge
• Choose a box height that keeps you in the cheapest band
• Pick the right board grade for your load
• Work out your monthly usage and buy in bulk
• Consider used pallet boxes to halve your box cost
• Strap and protect every load

Frequently asked questions

Find the right pallet box for your dispatches

Reuseabox stocks a wide range of used and new cardboard pallet boxes, available in bulk with UK-wide delivery. Not sure which size fits your network or your products? Talk to our team and we will help you find the right box at the right price.

Shop pallet boxes →