Freight handling

[Big Jim]

Slightly OT but still scenery related.
I am about to order a few flat wagons and was thinking about various loads and various methods of freight manhandling.
As I was cogitating this in work today I had a delivery of oil in 45gal drums. Two arrived strapped to pallets. The delivery driver was moaning about the fact that most of the stuff he delivers these days is "Pallitised" and very few small companies actually have forklifts to move it.
Pallets seem to have become the defacto method of shipping most items of over 25kg and under a ton.
Does any one have any idea about when this change started to come about?
I remember the ubiquitous ton bag arriving around 20 years ago for the simple reason that there used to be a deposit on them and they were a useful source of beer money. But when did the humble pallet arrive on the scene?
Strange question I know, but I had a very boring day in work.

[Narrow Minded]

According to Wiki;

The development of the forklift and the needs of World War II logistics operations led to substantial use of pallets.

I suppose the date of the ISO standards would point to when standardisation increased their use.

[Big Jim]

Thanks, I am surprised to find it is as early as WWII.
So a few pallets on wagons or on a goods platform would be okay it would seem.

[Peter Butler]

I was trying to remember from my own working life when I became aware of the use of pallets in connection with road deliveries.
Certainly by 1966 I was receiving deliveries by those wonderful Scammell (?) 3 wheelers operated by BR which were not on pallets at that time. Even later I can't recall pallets being used before about 1973 when I was working in Birmingham.
Perhaps it was the type of material being delivered which was the reason for this and I was simply not aware of their use?

[Peter Butler]

Thanks, I am surprised to find it is as early as WWII.
So a few pallets on wagons or on a goods platform would be okay it would seem.

So you're going to build a 16mm scale FLT too?

[Big Jim]

FLT?
Sorry probably being stupid.

[Peter Butler]

F Fork
L Lift
T Truck
Simples!

[Big Jim]

Ahhhhhh.
One Coventry Climax coming up.

[Peter Butler]

One Coventry Climax coming up.

Good choice Jim. Nice period piece.