Pallet courier companies - help!

[MolliciousIntent]

Need to return a bunch of bathroom shit and it has to go by pallet courier. Good, fine, got a quote.

But, like, how does it work? Do they turn up with the pallet, load it and pack it? Or do we have to source a pallet and load it ourselves??

This bathroom has melted my mind, as you can probably tell.

In my experience of working with pallet couriers you're expected to palletise and secure the load. There may be some willing to do this for you at extra cost but I've never encountered one. Good luck!

Boo. But thanks. Where does one get a pallet from!?

I know! To add to the "excitement" there's a shortage of pallets. Your best bet is to Google local pallet suppliers to you or go to a friendly builders merchant type and see if they'd do a deal. From how you've described what you're returning you'll also need pallet wrap. Fun times!

It might be worth doing a 'wanted' ad on Nextdoor.co.uk (if you're on it), or local Facebook groups - round here you can't get anyone to take pallets away so it means sawing them up and taking them to the tip - I'd be delighted if someone was offering to take one off my hands.

@Selford what kind of pallets do you have (2 or 4 way?) I work for a merchant and we can't get them for love nor money even paying for them. That's the kind of situation we'd take a lorry off the road to collect them.

@Phoenix76 Afraid I don't have any at the moment - we've had various deliveries over the last few years but last one was probably last summer, so maybe I'm out of date. Although I think some of it is regional, I have friends in Yorkshire who can get them collected (not sure if they get paid for them) - I'm London outskirts.

@Selford ahh that makes sense. We're in Kent and whoever we contact says "sorry none available, national timber shortage" we became aware of it during the pandemic but it's got steadily worse here. The ones we can get we get in with products on already that have to go out with that specific product on, the pallets in that case aren't far off £20. @MolliciousIntent may still be worth doing what @Selford advised as if it is regional you could get a bargain (just make sure the pallet is suitable for what you're loading on it, not all pallets are the same - tough lessons learnt here 😉)

@Phoenix76 - good to know, next time we get something delivered I'll try and flog the pallet! (Although tbh it's the hassle/environmental side which bugs me, it's so wasteful).

If you head to your local industrial estate or builders merchant you'll likely find a pallet you can ask for.
Most pallet companies want you to secure the load, this can be done with shrink wrap.
Try Screwfix or Toolstation for this.
www.screwfix.ie/search?search=Shrinkwrap

@Selford absolutely, and with inflation your pallets will go up in value. 100% agree about the environmental point, my company feel the same and have invested a lot of money trying to reduce environmental impact (concrete now gets recycled, office paper, plastic and metal get recycled, encouraged not to print anything unless necessary and so on)

Ok we have sourced a pallet! Now we just need to pack it. Reckon we can use string/tape rather than strapping? And then wrap?