Which came first, the pallet or the forklift? Like chickens vs eggs, it’s not an easy question to answer. The first lift truck was actually more like a crane. The forks came later and although George Raymond and Bill House are credited with receiving the first patent for a pallet, it’s a good guess forklift owners were knocking out their own pallets long before Raymond and House claimed the patent.
For generations, wooden pallets were the only pallets used. In fact, forklift designs were tweaked to accommodate lumber, which was cheaper, but not as strong as steel. It was only a matter of time, though, before someone came up with the idea of a plastic pallet. Plastic pallets were slow to catch on, but once they did, they started to give wooden pallets a run for their money and the fight between them is shaping up to be worthy of another Rocky sequel.
