Wood vs plastic pallets: cost per trip, not price per pallet

§1Side by side

Wood and Plastic compared on the points a buyer negotiates
Point	Wood	Plastic
Purchase price	Lower	Several times higher
Trips before retirement	Fewer; repairable	More; usually not repairable
Cleaning	Hard to sanitise	Washable
Fasteners and splinters	Nails and splinters possible	None
Export	Needs ISPM 15 treatment and mark	Not wood, so ISPM 15 does not apply
End of life	Recyclable into mulch and other wood products	Regrind, if a recycler takes the resin

§2Trips decide it

In a closed loop, the number of trips a pallet makes is the smaller of its rated life and one over the loss rate: N = min(L, 1/ℓ). A plastic pallet rated for 100 trips in a loop that loses 5% of pallets per trip makes about 20 trips. At that point the purchase price is spread over 20, not 100.

So the first job is to measure loss. If you can't keep loss low, a cheaper pallet usually wins.

§3Other costs to count

Plastic adds washing, tracking and sometimes higher tare weight. Wood adds repair and disposal. Both carry retrieval cost in a closed loop. Put each into the closed-loop formula in the calculator rather than comparing purchase prices.

§4When plastic tends to fit

Closed loops between your own sites; food, pharma or clean environments where a washable surface is required; automated systems that need consistent dimensions; export where you want to avoid ISPM 15 treatment. Open loops to customers who keep the pallets rarely suit plastic.

§5Test it on your numbers

The calculator opens with both options loaded. Enter your own quotes; nothing is pre-filled.

Trips per yearPallet shipments per year on this flow.

Years

Discount rate (%)

Your numbers. Every field starts empty: no vendor prices are assumed.
Input
Delivered price per pallet ($)From your supplier's quote, including delivery.
End-of-life salvage ($)What a retired pallet is worth (regrind, cores).
Rated tripsTrips before retirement, from the supplier's rating or your history.
Loss per trip (%)Share of pallets that don't come back each trip. Measure it.
Retrieval per trip ($)Return freight and collection cost per pallet.
Handling / sorting per trip ($)Labour to sort and stage returns.
Repair per trip ($)Average repair cost spread over trips.		n/a
Wash per trip ($)Washing cost for plastic pallets.	n/a
Pallet weight (lb)Weigh a sample.
Freight ($ per cwt)Your LTL rate per 100 lb, if you pay by weight.
Freight legs per tripLoaded legs that carry the pallet's weight.
Cost per trip	n/a	n/a
Cost per year	n/a	n/a
Net present cost, 3 yr at 8%	n/a	n/a

Enter a price (or a pool's fee) in at least one scenario to compare.

How these numbers are calculated

One-way:      CPT = P + D − S
Closed loop:  N = min(L_trips, 1/ℓ)
              CPT = (P − S_end)/N + R_c + H + ℓ·P + Rep
Pooled:       CPT = F_issue + r_day·d + F_transfer + ℓ·F_lost + F_admin/trips
Plastic:      closed loop + W (wash) per trip
All:          + tare freight T = w × ($/cwt ÷ 100) × legs
Annual        = CPT × trips per year
NPV           = capital at t=0 + Σ annual / (1+i)^t, t = 1..years
Capital (owned loops) = pool size × P, pool size = trips/yr ÷ min(N, 52)
Break-even dwell d* = (CPT_owned − F_issue − F_transfer − ℓ·F_lost) / r_day

Pool size assumes each pallet turns at most weekly. Results are only as good as the inputs.

§6How to decide

Plastic pays only in a controlled loop with low loss. Measure loss first, then compare cost per trip.