Hi All,

I’m looking for some assistance / guidance for when & how to use crane pallet forks in preference to using slings for lifting palletised goods into ships.

Background is that some of our clients have requested that all palletised goods being lifted onto our ships are done so by the use of crane pallet forks, however there is reluctance on doing so from our vessel crews. Discussions with crews indicate that the crane pallet forks have a minimum weight limit (?) and that not all of our loads are of a weight heavy enough to meet this minimum weight limit. Additionally, the pallet lifter that we have has a securing strap to secure the palletised load onto the pallet lifter and due to the low height/volume of some loads, it is not possible to use this securing strap.

The most frequently observed method of loading palletised loads onto the vessels is using lifting strops passed through the base of the pallet. To complicate matters further, goods are supplied on a variety of different pallets e.g. wooden pallets, plastic standard pallets, pressed plastic pallets, etc.

A search on Google for recommended best practice has proved pretty fruitless, so does anyone have any sources of definitive information to assist? Additionally, is lifting pallets with lifting strops threaded through the pallet base and then chocked recommended practice or is this something that has been superseded?

Thanks and regards,
Allan