People often treat the terms “pallet” and “skid” interchangeably. The two differ in a significant way. We’ll explain the difference between pallets and skids and their respective applications. Knowing the difference will enable you to optimize efficiency when transporting machinery.
What Is a Pallet?
Pallets have a deck at the bottom, making them more stable than a skid. The standard wooden pallet has a weight capacity of about 2,200 pounds. The addition of a bottom deck makes pallets the better choice for heavier machine tools, such as sawmills, planers and grinding machines.
The bottom deck, though, also creates more friction, which makes the pallet harder to drag. This can be problematic as you move pallets around tight spaces in an LTL truck already near its storage capacity. Transportation may require a forklift.
What Is a Skid?
A skid is essentially a pallet minus the bottom wood deck. For this reason, some people refer to a skid as a poor man’s pallet. While less stable than a pallet, a skid provides more mobility. You can also easily stack and store skids not in use. Many warehouses use skids as a permanent foundation for heavy machinery.
Pallets and Skids: Which Is Better?
To improve daily operations, learn when to use pallets and when to use skids. We recommend the former if you plan to place multiple smaller pieces of machinery on a single pallet. The additional stability helps keep the items in place. Use skids for single heavy pieces of machinery if you anticipate constant back-and-forth transportation of the piece.
Schedule Your Next Transportation
Whether you transport machine tools on a trailer or inside a dedicated truck transport, you need to maximize efficiency. This ensures minimal delays that may result in increased fees. Machine Transport has worked with countless manufacturers and understands how to best utilize pallets and skids. Contact us today for all your machine transport needs.
Pallets and Skids: Your Experts in Heavy-Duty Machine Tool Transport
Serving the manufacturing industry in the U.S, Canada & Mexico
Posted on August 17, 2022 | Published by Ignite Local | Related Local Business