Pallets for air cargo and forwarding in the Mid-South

BOX 01The airport next door

Memphis handled 3,754,236 metric tons of cargo in 2024, the most of any airport in North America, per ACI North America. A forwarder consolidates freight from many shippers onto fewer pallets and containers, and the pallet is part of the paperwork.

BOX 02What a forwarder checks on a pallet

• The stamp. Wood going abroad needs the IPPC mark; see reading the HT stamp.
• The size. Some destinations expect 1200 x 800 mm and others 48 x 40.
• Weight and condition. A broken board can be a rejected load.

Because the mark is on the wood, a forwarder cannot treat any pallet as export-ready. The export page and the ISPM 15 guide explain what to ask for.

BOX 03What they shed

Consolidation leaves behind pallets that belonged to individual shippers: mixed sizes, some stamped and some not. They are worth sorting on a count and a mark. The request should say how many carry the mark and how many do not.

The airport district page, pallets near the airport, covers the roads and ZIP codes; Southeast Memphis is the next ring out.

BOX 04A consolidation, step by step

1. Cartons from several shippers arrive at a forwarder's dock on their own pallets.
2. The forwarder rebuilds them onto fewer pallets, or into containers, for the flight.
3. Pallets that held the original loads are now spare.
4. Wood that leaves the country needs the mark; wood that does not, does not.

Step three is where the pile starts. The spares come in several sizes and several conditions, some marked, some not. A request that sorts them by mark is worth more than one that does not. See reading the HT stamp.

BOX 05Euro sizes in an American dock

Some European shippers send goods on 1200 x 800 mm pallets, which do not fit American racks designed for 48 x 40. The forwarder repacks them, or keeps them as a separate stock. Either way, they are a separate count in a request, with their own page: 1200 x 800.

BOX 06Written for the forwarder

A forwarder's request might read: "Consolidation dock in 38132 with about 150 spare pallets a week, perhaps a third carrying the IPPC mark, mostly 48 x 40, a handful of 1200 x 800; the marked ones are for sale, the others to clear." It separates marked from unmarked, which is the main thing a buyer will want to know.

BOX 07Hours, not days

Air freight is time-sensitive, and a forwarder's dock wants pallets quickly or not at all. "Needed within the week" and "no hurry" are different requests.

BOX 08The overnight hub

The FedEx hub at Memphis International runs about 250 flights a day, most between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and can sort 484,000 shipments an hour. The airport recorded 180,062 aircraft operations in 2025 (Wikipedia).

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