Most companies inherit their pallet size rather than choosing it. That is usually fine — until you open a new export market, move into automated racking, or start shipping by sea, at which point the inherited size can quietly cost you a percentage of every load.
The six ISO sizes
ISO 6780 specifies six plan dimensions for flat pallets in intercontinental trade. Three rectangular:
- 1200 × 800 mm — the Euro pallet
- 1200 × 1000 mm — the industrial pallet
- 1219 × 1016 mm — 48 × 40 inches, the North American GMA pallet
And three square: 1067 × 1067, 1100 × 1100 and 1140 × 1140 mm. Manufacturing tolerance on plan dimensions is +3 / −6 mm.
One correction worth making, because it is repeated widely online: the sixth ISO size is 1140 × 1140 mm, not 1165 × 1165. The 1165 mm square is Australia's national standard pallet — a real and common size, but not an ISO 6780 one. If a specification cites "ISO 1165 × 1165", it is wrong.
A smaller source of confusion: ISO expresses pallet length first, then width, where length runs in the direction of the stringers. That is why the same Euro pallet appears as both "800 × 1200" and "1200 × 800". Both are correct; nothing differs.
Euro versus industrial: the real trade-off
The 1200 × 1000 industrial pallet has a deck area of 1.20 m² against the Euro pallet's 0.96 m² — 25% more deck area, not the 20% often quoted. More area per pallet means fewer pallets, fewer handling movements and fewer labels for the same volume, which is why heavy industry, chemicals and the UK market lean toward it.
But the sizes behave very differently depending on how you ship.
On the road, the Euro pallet wins clearly. A standard European trailer is about 2480 mm wide internally, which fits three Euro pallets across (3 × 800 = 2400 mm) or two industrial pallets (2 × 1200 = 2400 mm). Both use the same width, but the Euro pattern advances in 800 mm steps against the industrial pallet's 1000 mm, giving 33 Euro pallets against 26 industrial ones in the same 13.6 m trailer.
At sea, the picture inverts in an interesting way. A standard container is about 2350 mm wide internally — and both 3 × 800 and 2 × 1200 come to 2400 mm, so neither fits. Every efficient container stow is therefore a mixed-orientation, two-lane pattern rather than a neat grid. Work it through and a 40 ft container takes about 25 Euro pallets or about 20 industrial pallets. Multiply out the floor area and both come to 24.0 m² — identical. The Euro pallet is not more area-efficient in a container; it is more granular, which lets you trim a load more finely.
That 50 mm shortfall against 2400 mm is the single most consequential number in container loading, and it is why pallet-wide containers exist: at roughly 2440 mm internal width, both patterns fit, and a 45 ft pallet-wide unit takes 33 Euro pallets against 27 in a standard one.
Half and quarter pallets
In the Euro family, a half pallet is 800 × 600 mm and a quarter pallet is 600 × 400 mm — each nesting exactly into the one above. The 600 × 400 module is the base element of the ISO unit-load system, which is why so much retail packaging is dimensioned around it.
Beware a common error online: some sources claim European half pallets are 600 × 400 and quarter pallets 400 × 300. In the Euro family that is wrong, and building a packaging specification on it will produce boxes that do not fit anything.
The clearances nobody checks
ISO 6780 also specifies entry clearances, and these matter more than most buyers realise. Vertical clearance for pallet trucks is 100 mm for a high-profile truck, 95 mm standard and 89 mm low-profile. For forklifts the minimum is 50 mm — with the standard noting that certain European countries need 55 mm. For automatic handling systems, 100 mm is the recommended minimum.
If you are moving into automated handling, check this before you check anything else. A pallet that works fine with a manual truck can jam a conveyor.
How to choose
Four questions settle it in most cases:
- Where does it go? Continental European retail and FMCG runs on 1200 × 800. The UK, Ireland, chemicals and heavy industry use 1200 × 1000 more. Match the destination's handling equipment, not your own preference.
- Road or sea? Predominantly road favours the Euro pallet. Predominantly sea makes the two much closer, and the decision shifts to how neatly your product divides into each footprint.
- Does your product fit the module? This is the one people skip. A box needing 1250 mm no longer fits either footprint and will overhang, costing you a lane in every trailer for the life of the product.
- Racking and automation? Beam spacing, entry clearance and pallet rigidity all constrain the choice, and changing racking later costs far more than changing pallets.
If you are specifying packaging for a new product or a new market, this is worth half an hour before the design is frozen. We are happy to run the arithmetic for your specific product and lanes — it is usually the cheapest saving available.
