Pallet freight and overnight pallet networks

Members, the central hub and a reciprocal bargain

Each member depot serves a defined area. It collects locally, trunks the freight into the hub, and delivers the inbound pallets allocated to its territory. Members therefore buy and sell capacity from one another, which lets a regional haulier offer national coverage without owning a national fleet. Because the network is a cooperative of independent businesses, service consistency depends on the weakest member as much as on the hub itself.

What counts as a pallet the network will accept

Networks publish grades by footprint, height and weight band, and charge accordingly, since a quarter-space unit, a half-height unit and a full-height pallet occupy different amounts of trunk deck. Overhang is the most common reason for rejection or a surcharge: a load wider than its base cannot sit tightly against its neighbour and wastes space on every vehicle it touches. Wrapping, banding and a legible label on more than one face are operational necessities rather than preferences, because pallets are read and moved quickly under time pressure.

Why the sortation window governs the whole service

The hub has a short period between the last trunk arriving and the first trunk leaving. Within it, everything is unloaded, sorted by destination depot and reloaded. Freight that arrives late is not sorted, and a pallet that misses its outbound trunk falls to the following night. That is why depot-level collection cut-offs are earlier in the day than shippers tend to expect.

Goods that suit a unit-load model

Packaged consumer goods, components, building materials and drinks move well because they are dense, robust and easy to square onto a base. The model suits loose items poorly, struggles with anything unusually tall or long, excludes goods needing temperature control on standard services, and stops being sensible once a consignment is large enough that a dedicated vehicle would bypass the hub altogether.

Frequently asked questions

Why is overhang such a problem?

A pallet that is wider than its base prevents the next unit sitting against it, so it consumes more deck than it is charged for and it fouls handling equipment. Networks either refuse it or reprice it to the space it actually takes.

What happens when a pallet misses the hub sort?

It waits for the next night's cycle. There is no way to re-run the sortation, because the trunk vehicles it would have joined have already departed for the delivering depots.