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Hire versus buying
What a hired pallet costs a day, and when buying beat it.
No pooled provider publishes a daily rate, which is the first thing worth knowing. Here is everything that is on the record, where each figure came from, and the arithmetic for whatever rate your own account carries.
Or call Jayden on 0494 820 639, 7am to 5pm weekdays.
Quick answer
What does a hired pallet cost a day?
No pooled provider publishes what a hired pallet costs a day. CHEP's terms of hire put the rate in the customer portal and Loscam's say it is notified in writing, so the only person who can tell you is your own account manager. What is public: CHEP's lost equipment compensation for a standard timber pallet was $55.00 a pallet as at 30 June 2024, and hire keeps accruing on a lost pallet until that is paid. This page sets out every published figure and the arithmetic to run your own account rate against buying.
Why does nobody publish a daily pallet hire rate?
Not us being coy about a competitor. It is in their own terms. CHEP's November 2023 terms of hire put the rate in its customer portal or leave it to a specifically agreed charge. Loscam's January 2021 terms say the rate is notified in writing. So the honest answer to what a pooled pallet costs a day is that it depends on an agreement you may not have read lately, and the only person who can tell you is your own account manager.
Here is what the two providers have actually put in public.
| Who | What | Published figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHEP Australia | Lost equipment compensation, Australian timber pallet, code 10001 | $55.00 a pallet | as at 30 June 2024 |
| CHEP Australia | Daily hire rate | not published | Terms of Hire, November 2023 |
| CHEP Australia | Hire keeps accruing on a lost pallet until compensation is paid | not published | Terms of Hire, November 2023 |
| CHEP Australia | Transfer notified more than 180 days after it happened is ordinarily rejected | not published | Terms of Hire, November 2023 |
| Loscam Australia | Daily hire rate | not published | Credit application and hire terms, January 2021 |
| Loscam Australia | Unrecoverable equipment is charged at the cost of replacing it with new | not published | Hire terms, January 2021 |
| Loscam Australia | Account service fee | $15.00 a month ex GST | Credit application, January 2021 |
| Loscam Australia | Late payment fee | $35.00 a month ex GST | Credit application, January 2021 |
| Loscam Australia | Transfer off must be notified within 40 business days | not published | Hire terms, January 2021 |
What do third parties quote for pallet hire?
None of these are provider tariffs and none of them is a quote to you. They are useful only as a benchmark to hold your own rate against.
| What | Rate quoted | Quoted by | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHEP, from | $0.199 a day | SupplyScope | 2024 |
| Loscam, from | $0.200 a day | SupplyScope | 2024 |
| Used in a worked invoice example | $0.150 a day | Precise Pallet Management | November 2025 |
| Described in an industry post, varies with volume | $0.250 a day | LinkedIn industry post | July 2024 |
When does hiring cost more than buying?
The whole decision in one sum. Take what the pallet costs to buy, divide by the daily hire rate, and that is how many days of hire you can pay before you have spent the price of owning it outright. Below, against our lowest published price of $18.99 a pallet ex GST delivered.
| If your rate is | Hire passes the purchase price at | Which is |
|---|---|---|
| $0.150 a day | 126 days | about about 4 months |
| $0.199 a day | 95 days | about about 3 months |
| $0.20 a day | 94 days | about about 3 months |
| $0.25 a day | 75 days | about about 2 months |
Two things this table leaves out, both of which make hire worse rather than better. It ignores loss compensation, and it ignores hire that keeps accruing on a pallet nobody declared. It also gives the pooled pallet no credit for coming back, which is the whole point of pooling, so read the next bit before drawing a conclusion.
When is hiring pallets the right answer?
We do not buy or sell pooled pallets and pooling is not what we are competing with. If your freight looks like this, a pool is doing its job.
- Freight that goes out and comes back through a network that already handles pooled equipment, cycling in days rather than months.
- Supplying a major retailer or distributor that mandates a pooled pallet on inbound. That is a requirement, not a cost decision.
- Businesses that do not want to own, store, sort, repair or chase an asset at all, and are happy to pay for that.
When is owning pallets the right answer?
- Anything one way. A pallet that leaves and does not come back is a hire bill that never stops until it is declared or paid out.
- Slow cycles. Stock that sits in a warehouse, in a container, at a customer or in a yard for months.
- Export. A hired pallet leaving the country is the expensive version of a problem a one way pallet does not have.
- Sites with poor control of movements and declarations, where the paperwork is the real cost rather than the timber.
The pattern underneath all four is the same. A pooled pallet is priced on the assumption it comes back quickly. Every day it does not, the assumption costs you money.
Working it out
Send the movement, not the question.
Tell us how many pallets you move a month, roughly how long each one is out, and whether they come back. That is enough to say whether owning beats hiring for your freight, and we will say so plainly if it does not.
Questions about pooled pallet costs
How much is a CHEP pallet per day?
CHEP does not publish a daily rate. Its November 2023 terms of hire put the rate in its customer portal or leave it to a specifically agreed charge, which means the number is account specific and yours may not match anyone else's. The figure quoted most often by third parties is around 20 cents a pallet a day. Treat that as a benchmark to test your own quote against, not as a price you are entitled to.
How much is a Loscam pallet per day?
Also not published. Loscam's January 2021 hire terms say the rate is notified in writing per account. The same outside source quotes around 20 cents a day. An industry post in July 2024 described about 25 cents, varying with volume.
What does a lost CHEP pallet cost?
CHEP published $55 a pallet for its Australian timber pallet, code 10001, as at 30 June 2024. That is the one hire figure CHEP has put in public. Its terms also keep hire accruing on a missing pallet until the compensation is actually paid, so a pallet you cannot account for costs the compensation plus every day it stays unresolved.
At what point is buying cheaper than hiring?
Divide what the pallet costs to buy by the daily hire rate. At our lowest published price of $18.99 and a 20 cent daily rate, hire passes the purchase price at about 94 days, which is roughly about 3 months. Anything that cycles slower than that, or does not come back at all, was cheaper to buy. That is before loss compensation, which only moves the answer the same way.
Is hiring ever the better option?
Yes, and pretending otherwise would not survive contact with your own numbers. Fast cycling returnable freight on a network that already handles pooled equipment, supplying a customer who mandates a pooled pallet inbound, and businesses that would rather not own, store, sort, repair or chase an asset at all. We do not buy or sell pooled pallets and we are not trying to talk you out of a system that fits.
Do you buy or sell CHEP or Loscam pallets?
No. Pooled pallets belong to the pool. If you have them building up, tell the pool to collect them. We take everything that is not pooled, on the same pickup.
What are the other charges on a pooled account?
Issue charges, transfer and movement handling, loss compensation, and account charges. Most are account specific and unpublished. The two Loscam figures that are published are a $15 a month account service fee and a $35 a month late payment fee, both ex GST and both from its January 2021 credit application. The charge that catches people is not a fee at all: hire that keeps running because a transfer was never declared.
Prefer to talk? Call Jayden on 0494 820 639. Our own prices are on what pallets cost.
Pallets supplied and delivered Australia wide, with the deepest coverage in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Central Coast. Not sure what you have got? Then measure it and we will name it. Clearing pallets instead? You can get an instant offer. Working out a budget? See what pallets cost, or hiring against buying. Getting rid of them? what happens to them after.
Related questions
- What happens to broken pallets?
- Which pallet do I need for export?
- Which pallet size and grade do I need?
- How many pallets fit on a truck?
Page updated 16 October 2026. Facts on this page are kept in step with the facts page; terms are explained in the glossary; the suburbs we stop at are on the areas page. Written by the team at 360 Operations Group, Prestons NSW; follow 360 on LinkedIn.