China Federation of logistics and purchasing pallet Specialized Committee were investigated in September 2002 in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, the four largest city in Guangzhou, more than 300 of production, transportation, warehousing and distribution companies, starting from the tray of the current situation and the existing problems and how to solve the specific aspects of understanding and analysis of the use of Chinese tray, this a work is helpful to strengthen the coordination and guidance of the pallet industry, also provides valuable data and suggestions for the logistics management departments and related enterprises.

(1) a preliminary survey of the existing pallet material, China logistics and purchasing Federation Specialized Committee, shows that China now has various kinds of pallets of about 50 million to 70 million tablets, and its annual output has increased by 20 million pieces. The flat wooden pallets, plastic pallets accounted for 90% accounted for 8%, steel tray, composite tray and paper tray together accounted for 2%. Composite pallets and plastic pallets have increased proportions.

(2) the standard of Chinese pallets and the main specifications of the existing pallets

At present, China's pallet specifications are rather chaotic. In addition to the tray machinery industry system using JB3003 - 81 provisions of the 800 mm * 1000 mm and 500mm~800 mm two specifications, 1996, the Ministry of transportation China Research Institute has proposed a "ISO6780:1988" main dimensions and tolerances of transport general purpose flat pallets equivalent adopted as the national standard Chinese tray. Later, the former State Technical Supervision Bureau approved and issued the equivalent standard with GB/T2934 - 1996 standard serial number, including 1 200mm 1 000mm, 1 200mm x 800mm, 1 140mm x 1 140mm and 1 219mm * 1016mm 4 pallet specifications. China's pallet standard is selected for the two specifications of 1000x1200 and 1100x1100.

In addition, a pallet standard, China and GB/T3716 - 2000 GB/T 16470 - 1996 pallet terms, pallet packaging, plastic pallet GB/T15234 - 1994, GB/T4995 - 1996 transport requirements general purpose flat pallets for performance, the national standard GB/T4996 - 1996 transport tray test method. Not only that, the China tray in Japanese, Korean enterprises also use a lot of 1100mm * 1100mm specifications.

All of this shows the China pallet standard too much, if not to rectify, it is difficult to effectively solve the problem of Chinese pallet specifications unified.  According to the investigation of the tray Specialized Committee, the tray specifications in the current circulation are more and more disorderly. Including: 2000mm * 1 000mm, 1 500mm, 1500 mm * 1 100mm * 1000 mm, 1400 mm, 1 300mm * 1200 mm * 1000 mm and 1200 mm * 1000 mm, 1200 mm, 1200 mm * 800mm * 1100 mm and 1100 mm * 1000 mm, 1 100mm, 1100 mm * 1100 mm * 900 mm, 1000 mm, 1000 mm * 1 000mm * 800 mm, 1200 mm, 1 300mm * 1200 mm * 1 600mm and 1 300mm * 1 100mm and other dozens of specifications. The specifications of the plastic pallets are relatively concentrated, mainly 1 100mm x 1100 mm and 1200 mm x 1000 mm, accounting for about 50% of the plastic pallets. This is due to the use of plastic molds in the production of plastic pallets, and the cost of the development of the mold is relatively high. The specifications of wooden pallets are rather confusing. The current specifications are mainly based on the specifications of their products, which is relatively simple compared with the wooden pallet manufacturing process. Steel tray specifications are not many, concentrated in two to three specifications, mainly used for the pallet bearing weight requirements of the higher port wharf and other units. In addition, in the survey, the pallet Specialized Committee also found that most of the enterprises used the plane four way to enter the fork and use the pallet at the same time, accounting for about 60% of the total number of pallets. The rest are two - way and two - way fork, double - side use tray, single - side use flat tray, box tray and column type tray. The number of special pallets used is less. Box pallets are mostly used for material handling in the process of enterprise production, and basically do not enter the circulation.

(3) the way of turnover

Pallet Specialized Committee statistics show that the current stage of Chinese pallets is basically the internal turnover of enterprises. For the production enterprise, the tray it owns is not out of the enterprise, and the use of the tray is limited to the transportation from the warehouse of the enterprise to the transport link. For the logistics enterprises, the tray is also limited to the internal deployment of the enterprise, and has not yet formed a smooth circulation mechanism of the tray.

(4) tray operation situation

The development of the tray can be said to be synchronized with the forklift. The joint use of the forklift and the tray has formed an effective loading and unloading system, which greatly improves the loading and unloading efficiency. From the statistical point of view, the current tray is basically used with a forklift. On average, each forklift is equipped with 800~1000 tray.