Guide
What is a gaylord box?
A gaylord is a pallet-size corrugated bulk box, usually 48 x 40 in and 2 to 5 layers thick; the name comes from the first company that made them.
A gaylord box is a pallet-size corrugated bulk box. The trade also calls it a bulk bin, skid box, pallet box, bin box or octabin when it has eight sides. It is usually double-wall or triple-wall corrugated fiberboard, and it holds between 800 and 3,000 lb depending on the walls. Gaylord Container of St. Louis made the first bulk bins and was acquired by Crown Zellerbach of San Francisco in 1955, which is where the generic name comes from.
The build, part by part
| Part | What it is | Trade word |
|---|---|---|
| Walls | 2 to 5 layers of fluted board | wall count |
| Base | Overlapping flaps, partial flaps or a separate tray | full flap bottom, partial flap bottom, sleeve and tray |
| Top | A loose lid, or flaps folded shut | lid |
| Shape | Rectangular, or eight-sided | octabin |
| Rating mark | A board test printed on the box | ECT, 1,100# TW |
| State when shipped back | Folded flat | knocked down (KD) |
How big and how strong
Typical footprints are 48 x 40, 48 x 48 or 48 x 45 in, and sidewalls usually run 24 to 50 in. Corrugated gaylords were introduced in the 1930s, and by the 1950s they carried everything from plastic resin to watermelons. The Cary Company lists gaylords in single wall 200#/ECT-32, double wall 275#/ECT-48 and triple wall 1100#/ECT-90. Container Exchanger cites capacity ranges that climb with each wall: 800 to 1,200 lb at 2 walls, up to 2,000 to 3,000 lb at 5.
| Wall count | Common height | Commonly cited capacity |
|---|---|---|
| 2‑wall | 30 to 36 in | 800 to 1,200 lb |
| 3‑wall | 34 to 40 in | 1,000 to 1,600 lb |
| 4‑wall | 36 to 41 in | 1,500 to 2,200 lb |
| 5‑wall | 36 to 46 in | 2,000 to 3,000 lb |
Single trip, multi-use and OCC
A single trip box has been used once. A multi-use box has made several trips. A box that is wet, torn, crushed or missing a bottom is OCC, old corrugated containers, and goes to recycling. Everything in between is a grade, and the grade hub explains each.
What goes in one
- regrind and pellets: ground plastic scrap and resin
- parts, fittings and castings, usually in a short box
- packaging, film and dunnage
- produce, in an octabin: squash, pumpkins and melons
- scrap collected for recycling
What does not: dangerous goods. A used gaylord is not UN-rated unless certified. For anything else, the question is how high the stack can go, and Stack Check answers it.
Where the word comes from, and where it does not
Gaylord is a trade name that became a common noun, in the way that some brand names do. A great many corrugated bulk boxes are sold under other makers' names and still called gaylords on the dock. If a listing says bulk box, bulk bin or pallet box, it probably means the same thing.
What is not a gaylord is just as useful to know. A single-wall shipping carton is not one. A steel or plastic tote is not one, though a plastic corrugated bulk box often is. And a box that carries a hazardous material under a UN rating is a different product with different rules; a used gaylord is not UN-rated.
Anatomy in one paragraph
A gaylord has a base, four walls and a top. The walls are the part most buyers ask about: corrugated board is made from fluted paper between flat liners, and a wall of triple-wall board has three layers of flute. The base can be a full flap bottom that closes the box, a partial flap bottom that leaves the centre open or a bottom that is a separate tray. The top is usually a lid, a set of flaps or nothing at all. Together these decide what the box carries, how it stacks and what it needs underneath.
Vocabulary you will meet
A few words come up again and again. OCC means old corrugated containers, the paper trade's name for used board. KD means knocked down, packed flat. A flap is one of the folding panels at the top or bottom. A slip sheet is a thin sheet a box can ride on in place of a pallet. A liner is a polyethylene bag set inside the box. Flute is the wavy paper between the flat sheets. ECT is the edge crush test, a measure of the board. If a seller uses a term you do not know, ask.
Why the size and the walls matter more than the name
Two boxes both called gaylords can differ a great deal. One may have two walls and a partial flap bottom, the other five walls and a full flap one. The name tells you the family, the footprint and the walls tell you the capacity, and the grade tells you what is left of it. That is why every page here asks for all of them.
How a gaylord differs from a tote or a drum
A tote is rigid and reusable for years; a drum is a cylinder built for liquids and powders; a gaylord is corrugated and built to be used a few times and then recycled. That difference decides what it is good for. A gaylord is light, cheap relative to its volume and easy to cut and reshape, and it is also weaker when wet and limited in how much weight a bottom can take. Choosing it is a choice about how long the container needs to last.
Questions, answered
Is a gaylord the same as a pallet box?
Yes. Bulk bin, skid box, pallet box, bin box and gaylord are different names for the same family of corrugated bulk boxes.
Why is it called a gaylord?
Gaylord Container of St. Louis made the first bulk bins. The company name became the trade's generic word.
What is the difference between a gaylord and an octabin?
An octabin has eight sides, which resist bulging under dense, flowable loads. The footprint is the same 48 x 40 pallet.
Sources and last reviewed
Facts on this page were last reviewed 2026-11-11.
- Bulk box (Wikipedia): Background on the bulk box, its origin with Gaylord Container, and the ASTM standard for triple-wall boxes.
- Nelson Company: when is a container a gaylord: A packaging supplier on when a container counts as a gaylord.
- The Cary Company: gaylord boxes, history and handling: A packaging distributor's history of the gaylord and its board ratings by wall count.
- Container Exchanger: the gaylord box guide: A reseller's plain-language guide to gaylord sizes, walls, capacity ranges and bottoms.