Slip sheets and the gaylords that use them

What a slip sheet does

A slip sheet is a flat sheet placed under or inside the load. Inside a gaylord with a partial flap bottom it covers the gap; under a load it lets a push-pull attachment move it without a pallet.

Why they travel with the boxes

A partial flap gaylord without its slip sheet has a gap in the bottom. Sellers should keep the two together, and buyers should ask for them. A used listing for a 48 x 45 x 40 five-ply box included slip sheets for that reason. See partial and full bottoms.

On a dock

Stack slip sheets flat and dry on a pallet. Count them in your sell request.

A note for forklift operators

A slip sheet only works if the operator and the forklift attachment expect one. The push-pull attachment grips the lip of the sheet and slides the load onto its platen. Without it, a sheet is a flat piece of board under a box and gives the forks nothing to hold. If your dock does not run push-pull, a box built for a slip sheet needs a pallet under it.

What to send with a request

When you sell or ask for partial flap boxes, say whether the slip sheets come with them or have to be sourced. A bundle of boxes without its sheets is a mismatch waiting to happen, and a bundle with the sheets saves the buyer a second order.

Reading the sheet itself

Slip sheets come in corrugated, fiberboard and plastic. The corrugated and fiberboard kinds are cheap, light and recyclable with the boxes, and plastic ones last longer but are another material to manage. Most have one or more tabs, the strips that fold up along an edge for a gripper to take hold of. A sheet with a damaged tab is hard to move with a push-pull attachment, so look at the tabs before you decide a sheet is reusable.

Why it matters to a seller

If you are clearing out a dock, sheets are easy to overlook: they are flat, grey or brown, and often buried under the boxes. A seller who bundles them with the boxes they belong to can describe the lot as complete. A seller who forgets them leaves the buyer with boxes built for a platform they do not have. Counting the sheets and writing the number in the request takes a minute and avoids a second conversation.

When a pallet is the better choice

Not every dock has push-pull equipment, and a sheet without it is dead weight. If the receiving dock runs standard forks, ask for boxes with a full flap bottom on a pallet instead, even if the stack is a little smaller. The load matters less than whether the dock can move it.

Storage

Store slip sheets flat and dry, away from the boxes that crush them. A sheet that has been folded or soaked will not slide properly. If you collect them, bundle them in tens.

If you are buying boxes with partial flap bottoms, ask whether sheets are included.

Tabs should face away from the load so the gripper can reach them.

Plastic sheets can be rinsed and reused many times; paper ones cannot.