What is a Euro pallet?

A Euro pallet (EPAL 1, also called EUR 1) is the standard European wooden pallet: 1200 × 800 mm, 144 mm high, built from 11 boards, 78 nails and 9 blocks, and weighing about 25 kg. EPAL gives it a safe working load of 1,500 kg, and a pallet at the bottom of a stack of loaded pallets may carry up to 5,500 kg. The size is one of the six in ISO 6780.

Since 1 January 2010 every new EPAL pallet has been heat treated under ISPM 15, the plant-health rule for wooden packaging in international trade. The mark sits on the two middle blocks of the long sides. Methyl bromide treatment is not allowed.

What fits on it. The 1200 × 800 footprint is two 600 × 400 mm packaging modules, so module cartons tile it with no gap: 4 cartons of 60 × 40 cm a layer, or 8 of 40 × 30 cm. Under a 1.80 m height cap that is 48 cartons of 40 × 30 × 25 cm per pallet. Off-module cartons leave gaps, and the count then depends on the layer pattern. The tables in how many cartons fit on a pallet give twelve common sizes.

On a truck. A Euro pallet is 0.4 loading meters. A 13.6 m trailer takes 33 of them on the floor, three across in eleven rows, or 34 if the last rows are turned. Weight often decides first: how many Euro pallets fit on a trailer.

Related: standard pallet sizes, TI-HI, and How many pallets will this order make?. Against the 1200 × 1000: Euro vs standard pallet.

Sources

• EPAL, EPAL Euro pallet (EPAL 1): dimensions, weight, safe working load, stacking load, ISPM 15. Read 2026-11-06.
• ISO 6780:2003, Flat pallets for intercontinental materials handling: principal dimensions and tolerances, Table 1.
• Euro pallet counts: the Pallet build and Trailer fit engines.