I wanted to share a close call in case anyone else is new to warehouse storage like me. I found what I thought was a great deal on some heavy duty plastic pallets from a random seller online, looked fine in the pictures and the price was really tempting. Luckily I mentioned the purchase to a friend who runs a bigger operation and he asked if they were rated for racking. I had no idea that was even a thing. Turns out the pallets I was about to buy were only rated for floor stacking, not for use in pallet racking. I had to go back and specifically look for
rackable plastic pallets instead. The difference apparently is in the design of the bottom runners and how they distribute weight across the rack beams. If I'd put those floor only pallets up in the air, they could have sagged or even cracked and dropped everything onto the aisle below. That would have been a disaster. So yeah, if you're using racking, make absolutely sure the pallet spec says rackable. Don't assume like I did. Ended up paying a bit more but way cheaper than an accident. Just a heads up for anyone shopping on a budget.
