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ryanmckinney,

Thanks for the compliment.

My mind is always thinking of out of the box money making ideas and I enjoy sharing my ideas on this forum and in my new wso.

All the best,

Martin

Just to confirm the viability of this idea. A few years ago a friend of mine was in desperate need to start earning some money. (The lady he'd lived off for the previous decade finally had enough!) I work in the transport industry knew about used pallets being a source of cash for drivers and had a chat with him about doing this. After overcoming his doubts about having to get his hands dirty and go out and work, I took him to a pallet yard where they confirmed the prices they would pay for pallets.

The OP suggests a truck but here in the UK a small trailer can carry sufficient pallets to get you going, and it is a lot less to buy. In my friend's case I just happened to have a trailer he could use.... In the UK the used pallet market centres around two sizes of pallet; standards and euro's. Standards are 48"x40" (120x100cms) and euro's are 48"x39" (120x80cms). Within those two brief designations are then dozens of specifications, particularly for the standards. If anyone looks into this seriously they will quickly pick up the main ones. It does help to understand completely when talking to a prospective customer just what specification he means, you don't want to hot foot it down to him with a full load of Stds only to find out you got completely the wrong spec.

This is why I would suggest in the first instance you concentrate on selling to the pallet yards, for the following reasons. Instant cash! They advertise with road side signs that they pay cash for pallets! No going looking for customers, then looking for your pallets. Just go find some pallets, take them into the pallet yard, get paid cash on the spot. Additionally, you learn as you go along, a euro is stamped "EURO" on the corner blocks as well as having the SNCF or DB (usually) stamped on for the French and German rail networks. Any other 120x80 pallets will be referred to as either euro nonstamped or euro lightweights and be paid less for accordingly. At the time of writing stamped euro's are worth between £1.00 and £2.50 each at the pallet yards; non-stamped between .50p and a pound. Standards are worth between .50p and £1.75 depending on spec and availability. A further advantage of the pallet yards is you can call in with a small quantity, eg 5 or 10 and get paid. Go fuel up and go get some more. (The fuel can be diesel or a breakfast!) Real subsistence work if needs must. A further point if you are in a large city or conurbation, there will be several yards to choose from, and prices will vary. So do your homework, some yards will do a quick count and payout purely for the pallets counted, others will take them off and check each one and pay you on a sliding scale according to spec and condition. You then learn which one to go to according to the load.

So on day 1 you can go out and start to earn cash. In respect of sourcing your stock, a few words of advice. Try to identify companies who receive stock on pallets but don't then re-use them for onward shipment to their clients. So retailers in all environments; the high street, the suburbs and the shopping centres. Often it is not a management decision on how to dispose of these surplus pallets; the warehouseman, the fork lift driver etc. Be aware that these guys often have a pretty good idea of the value of the pallets.... so be prepared to go 50/50 with them. After all if you can be made aware of when they will have pallets available, kept inside dry and clean, loaded by the fork lift, no brainer. (Obviously you only pay for undamaged pallets, the damaged ones you will "reluctantly" take away as a favour ;-) Also you can quote the prices the nearest pallet yard pays, if it is to your advantage....

For some companies empty pallets are a PITA, for them you are a godsend. Be aware that many will expect you to remove all their pallets, including the non standard ones. It is a judgement call depending on how many saleable pallets they have, but, don't let them use you as a waste disposal company for all their broken and unrepairable pallets. Politely point out that you can't accept what should go in a recycling skip, but that you will take all their good or repairable pallets. Those non standards can be used as a source of a firewood sideline or, as mentioned above, turn them into something else - furniture, fencing, compost bins, w.h.y?

My friend did this for 12 years as his only regular source of income. He would pipe dream with me of getting his own pallet yard, and direct customers, and having artics coming in with 500 pallets on which he could instantly resell without touching them, oh what a life. In reality as soon as he'd earned £50-60 in a day he'd head home. That was usually within 2-4 hours. I never knew him to start before 10:30am. In the end he wooed back his lady friend, and married her, well, she had bought 10 buy-to-let houses while they were apart! Oh, and he's still got my trailer!

It goes to show that many people need step by step direction rather than figure out everything for themselves. Represents a good opportunity to sell them solid plans. There is also something tangible to a simpler business that doesn't promise millions in a ground floor oppty in a billion dollar industry. Many are burned out and jaded on those type offers.