Working Safely with Pallets - Basic Steps

Pallets have the potential to be implicated in a variety of injuries, from puncture wounds to sprained ankles. If used for a non-approved purpose, such as a man lift, the result could be tragic. With some 1.8 billion pallets in use across the United States, it serves material handlers to take some basic precautionary steps to avoid injury.

Never use pallets as a man lift. Only use engineered lift platforms for this purpose, after having received and signed off on necessary training.

Avoid standing on a pallet. Pallets are engineered to hold evenly distributed loads rather than weight focused under foot. A worker standing on a pallet can be injured if a deck board breaks, or if the worker’s foot gets caught between deck boards. Depending upon design, some pallets of 9-leg design may be prone to tipping when empty.

Use a pick hook for accessing products at the back of a pallet. One way to avoid stepping on a pallet is to use a pick hook to reach product on the back of a pallet and pull it forward.

Take care when stepping between pallets. When pallets are positioned side by side in storage racks, workers may step between or on pallets to access products at the back of the pallet. Ankle injury can result if the worker loses balance while stepping between pallets.

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