Knowledge Centre — pooled pallets
Can I sell CHEP, LPR or IPP pallets?
The short answer is no. Blue CHEP, red LPR and brown IPP pallets are hired out by their operators and stay the operator's property throughout. A business holding them is not the owner, which is why no reputable pallet company will buy them from you — us included. This page explains how to recognise them and what to do instead when they accumulate.
Published by Palletmove. Last reviewed: 21 September 2026. Practical guidance from Palletmove on recognising pooled equipment and routing it correctly. It is a summary of how pooling arrangements generally work, not legal advice and not a statement of the terms of your own contract with a pooling operator — check those terms, or ask the operator directly.
Why not
A pooled pallet is hired equipment, not stock
Pooling operators keep ownership of their pallets and recover them through their own networks. Selling hired equipment you do not own is not a grey area.
The commercial model is straightforward: the operator owns a large fleet of pallets, issues them into supply chains, and collects them back. Ownership never transfers to the business handling the goods. Marks on the blocks, painted colours and the operator's name are all there to make ownership obvious at a glance.
It follows that pooled pallets cannot be sold, disposed of or recycled as though they were surplus stock. If they are sitting on your site, the right route is a collection arranged with the operator whose mark they carry.
If pooled pallets are building up
- Identify the operator from the colour and the block marks.
- Separate pooled pallets from your own stock before any collection.
- Contact the operator to arrange their own collection or transfer.
- Keep a record of quantities held, so a dispute is a paperwork question.
- Ask your suppliers whether stock could arrive on non-pooled pallets instead.
Identification
The three you will see most often
Colour is the first clue, but the ownership mark on the block is what settles it.
| Operator | Usual appearance | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| CHEP | Blue-painted blocks, pale timber decks, CHEP ownership marking. | Arrange a CHEP collection or transfer. Do not include in a sale. |
| LPR | Red across the deck and blocks, LPR stamp on a corner block. | Arrange an LPR collection. Do not include in a sale. |
| IPP | Brown or dark-stained blocks with IPP marking. | Arrange an IPP collection. Do not include in a sale. |
There are photographs and a fuller walkthrough in identifying pooled pallets and blue and red pallets explained.
What you can sell
Your own pallets are a different matter
Most sites hold a mixture. Once the pooled equipment is separated out, what remains is usually ordinary white-wood stock that we may well buy.
Sound, reusable pallets of a common footprint are the most likely to be purchased. Repairable stock is assessed case by case. Mixed and odd-size pallets are more often a collection than a sale, and broken timber is a recycling job.
Sell surplus pallets sets out how that works and what we need to know, and pallet collection covers scheduling for sites where stock builds up continuously.
Related
Where to go next
- Identifying pooled palletsPhotographs, marks and the checks that settle ownership.
- Blue and red palletsWhy the colours exist and what they signal.
- Sell palletsWhat we buy, collect or recycle from business sites.
- Pallet collectionScheduled and one-off collection of unwanted pallets.
- Pallet recyclingWhere timber is beyond repair and recovery is the route.
- Pallet managementKeeping pooled and owned stock apart across several sites.
Not sure what is on your site?
Send a photograph of a representative stack. We will tell you what is pooled, what is saleable and what needs recycling.