In the e-commerce industry, bulky freight refers to goods that require pallets, skids, tail-lifts, forklifts, or are otherwise unable to be lifted by hand. According to occupational health and safety rules in Australia, anything that weighs over 30kg must not be lifted by hand.
You might need to ship pallets when transferring stock from your warehouse to your store, or moving stock between stores.
You can set up pallet presets and create orders for palletised freight in your Shippit account. When you choose a pallet package type for your order, quotes are returned from carriers who can handle your pallets. This means you don't need to book and ship palletised freight outside of your regular Shippit system.
This article discusses how to configure your package allocation settings for palletised freight, and ship orders on pallets. For more information about what is considered palletised or bulky freight, including a list of supported carriers, see the Bulky freight and pallets article.
Prepare to ship pallets
Before you start shipping pallets, make sure you have:
Completed the Bulky goods request form. Send the completed form to your Shippit account manager, or email it to configuration team, and we'll get you started.
Turned on a carrier that is set up to support pallets. For more information about which carriers support pallets, see the carrier matrix on the Shippit website.
Configure your pallet presets. For more information, see the Set up pallet presets section.
Create an order and select the pallet package type. For more information, see the Ship a pallet section.
Pallet restrictions
You must have approval before you start shipping pallets. Download and complete the the Bulky goods request form. Send the completed form to your Shippit account manager, or email it to configuration team, and we'll get you started.
You can only ship pallets to business addresses, not residential. This means that you can ship pallets between stores and warehouses, or to other businesses, but you can't ship pallets to residential consumers. If you do ship a pallet to a residential address, the carrier might charge you additional fees. For more information about fees for palletisation and residential delivery, see the Misdeclaration and other charges article.
Make sure that if you create an order that includes a pallet, it doesn't also include any parcels. Orders must be entirely parcels, or entirely pallets, they can't be a mix of both.
Set up pallet presets
Before you ship pallets you need to turn on and configure pallets in your package allocation settings.
Setting up pallet presets
Log in to your Shippit account.
Open the drop down menu in the top right of your screen, and click Settings.
Navigate to the Package allocation section.
In the Package presets section, navigate to Pallets. The standard Australian pallet size is already included for you. Turn the toggle on to enable standard Australia pallets to make it available for selection when you create a new order in Shippit.
Optional: Click Add custom pallet to add any additional custom pallet sizes that you require, such as a non-standard pallet size, or a skid, if you use them. Name the new package preset, and provide the dimensions. Click Save and enable to add the new preset.
To edit or delete a pallet preset, click the kebab menu.
Ship a pallet
When you have your pallet presets set up, you can ship pallets directly through your Shippit account.
For information about using the Shippit APIs to ship pallets, see the Developer guide.
Shipping a pallet from your Shippit account
Log in to your Shippit account, and navigate to the New Orders screen.
Click Add standard order to create a new standard order, or click the dropdown arrow next to the button and click Add priority order to add a new priority order.
Navigate to either the Add an order or the Add & book an order tab.
Select the pickup details for the products you want to ship, and complete your customer details for the order. Click Save to generate a quote.
In the Packages section, choose one of your preset pallet sizes, type the weight of the order including the pallet, and specify the height.
Optional: Click Add a package to add more pallets. You can't combine pallets and packages, each order must be entirely pallets, or entirely packages.
In the Carriers section, click the dropdown arrow to see the possible carrier options, and select your preferred carrier. Only carriers that support shipping pallets are shown.
Click Book → New Orders to book the parcel with your chosen carrier and return to the New Orders screen. Alternatively, click Book & download label → Track to book the parcel with your chosen carrier and return to the Tracking screen.
Troubleshooting
This section contains information about some common issues you might encounter with shipping pallets. If you can't find an answer to your question here, get in touch with us using the chat in your Shippit account, or reach out to Shippit support.
I'm not getting quotes for shipping pallets
You need to have approval to ship pallets. Download and complete the the Bulky goods request form, and send the completed form to your Shippit account manager, or email it to configuration team.
When you have received approval, navigate to Settings → Carriers and make sure you have turned on at least one carrier that supports pallets. For more information about which carriers support pallets, see the carrier matrix on the Shippit website.
My orders aren't being automatically allocated to a pallet
Orders are not automatically allocated to a pallet, you must manually select the correct pallet preset, or specify specific dimensions using the custom pallet option.
I want to ship a pallet along with a package
Orders must be entirely parcels, or entirely pallets, they can't be a mix of both.
I want to ship pallets to residential addresses
You can only ship pallets to business addresses, not residential. This means that you can ship pallets between stores and warehouses, or to other businesses, but you can't ship pallets to residential consumers. If you do ship a pallet to a residential address, the carrier might charge you additional fees. For more information about fees for palletisation and residential delivery, see the Misdeclaration and other charges article.
I created an order and want to change my package to a pallet
To change a package to a pallet in an existing order, delete the package, and then add it again with the correct pallet size.