What is a gaylord box?
A gaylord is a pallet-sized corrugated bulk box, usually 48 x 40 inches, named after the company that made the first ones.
The short answer, then the long one
A gaylord box, also called a bulk box, bulk bin, skid box, pallet box, bin box or octabin, is a large container made of corrugated fiberboard, usually double or triple wall, built to sit on a pallet and carry a few hundred to a few thousand pounds. Typical footprints are 48 x 40, 48 x 48 or 48 x 45 inches, with sidewalls between 24 and 50 inches high.
The name is a brand that became a noun. Gaylord Container of St. Louis made the first bulk bins, and Crown Zellerbach of San Francisco acquired the company in 1955. Many companies make the boxes now, and the name belongs to the trade.
The parts of one
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Walls | The layers of corrugated board in the side walls, 2 to 5 |
| Flutes | The wavy paper between flat liners that gives the board its stiffness |
| Flaps | The folding panels at the top and bottom that close the box |
| Bottom | Full flap (flaps meet) or partial flap (gap, needs a pallet) |
| Footprint | Width by depth on the floor, in inches |
| Cap or lid | A telescoping top that slips over the walls |
| Liner | A poly bag inside the box to keep product clean |
ASTM D5168 covers the fabrication and closure of triple-wall corrugated containers, which is the standard behind many gaylords.
What it carries
Resin and regrind in pellet form. Powders in a liner. Watermelons, cantaloupes, squash and pumpkins. Cast parts and fasteners. Folded textiles. Foam and film scrap. Bagged feed. Anything bulky enough that a pallet of cartons would be tedious and heavy enough that one box would be hard to lift.
In the Delaware Valley that list lives in specific places: melon fields in Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties, resin plants in Bucks County and New Castle County, parts shops in Montgomery County, food warehouses at Pureland. See who uses gaylords.
How we use the word
We say gaylord for the whole family and name the style when it matters: rectangular, octagonal, sleeve and tray, plastic corrugated. We call a used box by its grade, and we stop short of calling any used box UN-rated, because a used box is not UN-rated unless it is certified.
If you only need to know what size to ask for, see the sizes table. If you need to know how much it holds, see weight capacity.
A little history of the word
"Gaylord" began as a company name, and the trade has used it as a common noun for a pallet-sized corrugated bulk box (see the sources below). When a seller says "gaylord" without a size, they mean a pallet-sized corrugated bulk box, not a company.
The family has relatives. An octabin is the same idea with eight sides. A sleeve-and-tray box is built in two parts that slide over one another. A plastic corrugated gaylord is made of fluted polypropylene sheet instead of paper. A bulk bin is any of these, and "bulk box" in a purchasing system usually means the whole lot.
Why they exist at all
Cartons are fine until a load is dense and plentiful. A plant that moves pellets or parts by the ton would spend its day handling small cartons. One gaylord on one pallet moves a large load in one lift, and that arithmetic of lifts per pound is why the best way to compare gaylords is still to count what each lift costs.
Questions people ask
What size is a standard gaylord box?
48 x 40 inches on the floor, most often 36 inches tall.
Why is it called a gaylord?
After Gaylord Container of St. Louis, which made the first bulk bins.
Is a gaylord the same as an octabin?
An octabin is a gaylord with eight sides. All octabins are gaylords; not all gaylords are octabins.
Sources
- Bulk box, Wikipedia, last reviewed November 11, 2026
- Nelson Company: when is a container a gaylord, last reviewed November 11, 2026
- Container Exchanger: the gaylord box guide, last reviewed November 11, 2026