Pallet dimensions look like a haulage question, but they are really a warehouse design question. The footprint you standardise on decides how deep your racking beams sit, how many pallets fit in a bay, whether your pallet truck forks reach the far stringer, and how much aisle you have to give up. Get it wrong and you find out expensively, usually after the racking is bolted down.
This guide covers the sizes actually in use in the UK, what they weigh, what they are rated to carry — and then the part most pallet-size articles skip: what each dimension means for the equipment that has to lift and store them.
A note on what we do: KC Supply does not sell pallets. We supply the racking, pallet trucks, stackers and cages that handle them, so this guide is written from the equipment side. For the pallets themselves you want a pallet manufacturer or a pooling operator such as CHEP or LPR.
The two sizes that matter in the UK
Almost everything moving through a British warehouse sits on one of two footprints.
The UK standard pallet — 1200 x 1000mm
Sometimes called the GB pallet, the industrial pallet or simply the standard pallet. At 1200mm long by 1000mm wide it is the default for UK domestic distribution, and it is the size the UK pallet delivery networks are built around. Standardised internationally as one of the six ISO 6780 footprints, and matching the EUR 2 and EUR 3 pallet dimensions.
The Euro pallet — 1200 x 800mm
The EPAL Euro pallet (EUR 1) is 1200mm long by 800mm wide. It is the standard across continental Europe, so anything arriving from an EU supplier is likely to be on one. Genuine EPAL pallets carry the EPAL stamp in an oval on the corner blocks, which is what makes them exchangeable within the pallet pool — an unstamped 1200 x 800mm pallet is the right size but not a pool pallet.
Both are typically around 144mm tall. That 144mm matters more than people expect: it is dead height inside every racking bay and it stacks up over four or five levels.
Smaller footprints you will also meet
- Half Euro (EUR 6) — 800 x 600mm. Common in retail-ready and display distribution.
- Quarter pallet — 600 x 400mm. The display pallet, sized to the same modular grid.
- Half UK pallet — 1200 x 500mm. Used where a full standard footprint will not fit a delivery vehicle or a store aisle.
These all derive from the same 400 x 600mm module, which is why they nest neatly onto a 1200 x 1000mm or 1200 x 800mm base for transport.
Weights and load ratings
An empty four-way timber pallet typically weighs somewhere between 20 and 30kg depending on the timber, the board thickness and how wet it is — a pallet that has been out in the yard all winter can be noticeably heavier than the same pallet under cover.
EPAL publishes three separate load figures for the Euro pallet, and the distinction between them is the one that trips people up:
- Static load — up to 4,000kg. What the pallet will take standing still on a flat floor.
- Dynamic load — up to 1,500kg. What it will take while being moved on a truck or stacker.
- Racking load — up to 1,000kg. What it will take when supported only at its edges on beams, with nothing under the middle.
The racking figure is the low one because a pallet in a beam bay is effectively a bridge. If your stock is heavy, that 1,000kg — not the 4,000kg headline — is the number your racking design has to work to. Timber pallets also degrade; a split bottom board that is harmless on the floor is a genuine hazard two levels up.
Two-way or four-way entry
A four-way pallet can be picked up from any of its four sides. A two-way pallet, with solid stringers running its full length, can only be entered from the two ends. This is not a minor detail — it dictates which way round the pallet has to be presented to a truck, and therefore how much space you need to turn it.
If you are running manual pallet trucks in tight aisles, four-way entry is worth specifying with your supplier. Turning a loaded two-way pallet in a narrow aisle because it arrived facing the wrong way is where a lot of avoidable damage happens.
What pallet size means for your handling equipment
Fork length
Standard hand pallet truck forks are 1,150mm long, which is deliberately just under the 1,200mm length of both the UK and Euro pallet — the forks go in along the 1,200mm dimension and stop short of pushing out the far end. That works for both footprints as long as you enter on the correct side.
Longer 1,220mm forks are available on some models, including the VULCAN Premium weigh scale trucks, and they are worth having if you regularly handle oversized or double-length loads. Standard fork width across the range is 160mm, and overall truck width is typically 540mm, which is what lets a truck straddle the centre stringer of a 1,000mm-wide pallet cleanly.
The practical rule: forks should support the pallet across most of its length, but should not protrude out the back where they can catch the next pallet in the rack. If you are choosing between formats, our guide to manual versus electric pallet trucks works through the decision, and how to use a pallet truck safely covers the entry and lifting sequence.
Straddle width on stackers
Straddle stackers carry their legs outside the load, so the leg spacing has to clear the pallet width. The adjustable-fork straddle stackers in our range give an overall width of 1,100 to 1,380mm, which covers both the 1,000mm and 800mm pallet widths with clearance either side. If you run a mixed pallet estate, an adjustable straddle is the safer specification than a fixed one — see how to choose a pallet stacker.
Racking bay sizing
This is where pallet dimensions cost or save you the most money. A beam bay has to hold the pallets plus clearance between them and at each upright, so the beam length is never simply pallet width multiplied by pallet count. You also need clearance above the load before the next beam level, and the pallet has to sit across the beams with its load-bearing dimension spanning them.
Two things follow from that. First, the pallet depth relative to the frame depth matters: a 1200 x 1000mm pallet stored with the 1000mm dimension front-to-back overhangs a frame designed around an 800mm Euro pallet. Second, standardising on one footprint is almost always cheaper than designing bays that accommodate both, because the mixed-estate bay has to be sized for the larger one and then wastes that space whenever the smaller one is stored.
Our pallet racking buying guide covers bay, beam and load-rating specification in detail, and warehouse racking types explained compares the systems. Browse pallet racking and the wider racking and shelving range.
When the pallet is the wrong container
Not everything belongs on a pallet. Loose, awkward or long material handles better in a steel frame — see our guide to stillages and heavy duty material frames. Our craning cages are built to accommodate euro pallets directly, so a pallet load can be craned without being broken down.
Choosing a standard for your site
If you have a choice, follow your traffic. If most of your inbound stock arrives from EU suppliers on 1200 x 800mm pallets, standardising on Euro saves you re-palletising. If your outbound goes through a UK pallet network, standardise on 1200 x 1000mm. Where inbound and outbound genuinely differ, pick one for storage and accept the re-palletising cost at the point it is cheapest — usually at goods-in, where you have the space and the labour already.
Then size everything else around it: beam lengths, frame depth, aisle width, truck fork length and straddle width. Doing it in that order is much cheaper than doing it in reverse.
Frequently asked questions
What are the different sizes of pallets?
In the UK the two dominant footprints are the standard or GB pallet at 1200 x 1000mm and the Euro pallet at 1200 x 800mm. Smaller modular sizes include the half Euro at 800 x 600mm, the quarter or display pallet at 600 x 400mm, and the half UK pallet at 1200 x 500mm. ISO 6780 recognises six pallet footprints internationally, of which the two UK sizes are part.
What is the main difference between Euro and UK pallets?
Width. Both are 1200mm long, but the Euro pallet is 800mm wide and the UK standard pallet is 1000mm wide. Genuine EPAL Euro pallets also carry an EPAL stamp on the corner blocks, which makes them exchangeable within the European pallet pool — a UK standard pallet is not part of that pool.
What size is a full pallet?
In the UK pallet delivery networks, full, half and quarter pallet usually describe a height band on the same 1200 x 1000mm footprint rather than a different footprint. A full pallet is typically loaded to around 2.2m, a half pallet to around 1.2m and a quarter pallet to around 0.75m, though the exact bands vary between carriers — check with yours.
How much does a pallet weigh?
An empty four-way timber pallet is usually between 20 and 30kg, depending on timber, board thickness and moisture content. Add that to your load when you are working out truck capacity and racking beam loading, not after.
How many pallets fit on a lorry?
A standard 13.6m UK curtainsider is commonly quoted as taking 26 standard 1200 x 1000mm pallets or 33 Euro pallets on the floor, single-stacked. A 40ft container typically takes around 20 to 21 standard or 23 to 25 Euro pallets. Both figures depend on the loading pattern and on whether loads can be double-stacked, so treat them as planning figures rather than guarantees.
Can a pallet truck handle both UK and Euro pallets?
Yes. Standard 1,150mm forks enter both along the 1200mm dimension, and a 540mm overall truck width straddles the centre stringer on both footprints. What changes is which side you enter from and how much turning space you need — a two-way entry pallet only opens on two sides. See our pallet trucks and manual pallet trucks ranges.