Safety and stability

Every unstable pallet reduces your efficiency and impacts your profitability

What is the cost of unstable loads?

Approximately 4% of transported loads are damaged during transit. This results in a structural additional cost of €5-20 per shipped pallet, on top of the packaging costs.


Some major costs related to cargo damage include:

  • Repacking and redelivery: goods need to be placed on new pallets, repackaged, or replaced. This results in additional labor, material, and transportation costs.
  • Loss of staff time: warehouse employees, customer service, planners... they lose valuable time on claims handling, at the expense of their normal tasks.
  • Administrative processing costs: every damage claim takes time: registering, completing forms, and communicating with the carrier and insurer. This averages out to 2 to 3 hours per incident of costly labor.
  • Internal follow-up: root cause investigations, reporting, meetings and inspections also take up management time.
  • Insurance issues: not all damage is covered. There are deductibles, partial reimbursements, and potentially higher premiums for many claims. Sometimes damaged inventory even has to be destroyed.
  • Customer dissatisfaction and reputational damage: late or damaged deliveries frustrate customers and can cause operational problems, such as production standstills. This erodes trust and brand value.


In our blog post about these hidden costs, we work through a practical example. It shows that a 3PL shipping 20,000 pallets per year, even with a very low damage rate of 1%, has a hidden cost of a whopping €117,000. Or, on average, €5.85 per shipped pallet, in addition to the packaging costs of €2.96 per pallet. The Total Cost of Ownership is actually 297% higher.

How is load stability determined?

The European recognized standard for load stability is EUMOS 40509. A loaded pallet is abruptly accelerated or decelerated on a test platform – similar to an emergency stop or a truck turning maneuver. The standard requires that the pallet can withstand a force of at least 0.5 g (half the force of gravity) without tipping over, shifting significantly, or becoming structurally deformed.


If a pallet load meets the strict requirements of EUMOS 40509, it is “dimensionally stable” – crucial for roadside inspections and damage claims.

"Most loads do not meet Eumos standards, resulting in significant damage and unnecessary costs."

In practice, most loads today do not comply with the EUMOS 40509 standard. This has numerous causes: incorrectly adjusted machines, poor-quality stretch film, incorrect wrapping pattern, or no pallet wrapping. This or a combination of these factors can occur.


This creates a lot of hidden costs - think of product damage, delays, damage claims, fines and insurance costs.


 With Elvis, we put an end to this. Elvis is tested and approved according to EUMOS 40509. Even more – with Elvis, we test stability at an impact that is 60% higher than necessary for road transport. While the standard is typically assessed at 0.5g of horizontal acceleration, we test at 0.8g to guarantee a higher safety margin. This way, you can always be sure of stable loads.

See for yourself how Elvis passes the tests

How we ensure stability in your logistics

 1. Intake & dimensioning
We analyze your pallet flows, heights and loading profiles and match the correct wrap sizes and protection.


 2. Certification Support (EUMOS 40509)
We will guide you in obtaining an official EUMOS certificate, in collaboration with an accredited testing and validation partner. This will provide you with objective proof of load unit stability — a strong argument for audits, insurers, and customers.


 3. On-the-Floor Onboarding
Short, practical training for your employees: correct closing tension, correct positioning, and visual inspection. After one session, your team will be ready to work independently with Elvis.


 4. SOPs & Inspection
We provide simple checklists for daily inspection of wraps, closures, and pallet geometry. This ensures that every load remains reproducibly stable, without relying on individual actions.


 5. Documentation & Reporting
We provide a compact EUMOS summary and the relevant parameters for internal audits, insurance files or customer reporting.

Result: stable, reproducible and audit-ready — with demonstrable conformity to European standards.