Amazon Best Practice Explained

As an approved carrier for Amazon pallet deliveries, we understand that you may have questions regarding the process of sending your goods into Amazon Fulfilment Centres with us.

For this reason, we have shared everything you need to know about Amazon's best practice to ensure your delivery is accepted the first time, with no issues or delays.

We are also offering a better insight as to what happens on our end, and what is required of you to get your goods from the collection point to the correct Fulfilment Centre.

General Info: What You Need to Know

When delivering to Amazon, all drivers must provide the correct booking reference (the ISA number). This helps to identify the time your delivery is due and will help keep track of the latest status of your delivery too.

They also have to ensure they maintain at least 30cm between the top of the pallet loads and the roof of the trailer. Also, there should be 30cm between the back of the trailer and the last layer of pallets.

As Amazon can only offload pallets from the rear end of the delivery vehicle, the driver has to ensure all consignments to be delivered to Amazon Fulfilment Centres are easily accessible from the back.

How Does Manifesting Work?

Manifesting is the process of exporting bookings from one place to another, ensuring all details are carried over correctly and that nothing is missed off (this is crucial) before any changes are saved.

For Amazon FBA bookings, the required ASN/FBA and the UNIT/CARTON counts are populated in the correct fields. You do not have to do this yourself, all you need to do is book your delivery with us and we will manifest the details on our system and correspond with Amazon on your behalf.

For next-day service into Amazon Fulfilment Centres, our team has to manifest all bookings by 5pm. This ensures that the correct FC receives the booking details and knows to expect each shipment to arrive the very next day.

To remove timed delivery surcharges from consignments within our system, we use special postcodes for Amazon. These are listed on our website and are shown in the drop-down section when booking an Amazon pallet delivery with us.

Single-Stacked Pallet Requirements

As you can imagine, there are specific requirements for all Amazon deliveries. We, as an approved carrier, must adhere to these at all times. The pallet dimensions and weight of single-stacked pallets are:

• Each side of the pallet must be no higher than 1.8m
• Must not exceed a total weight of 500kg

Again, Amazon must be able to offload the pallets from the rear-end of the delivery vehicle. This is why we always advise you to ensure you have checked their packing requirements and regulations before arranging an Amazon pallet delivery.

For your delivery to be accepted by Amazon, any singular items that are taller than 1.55m must be laid horizontally on the pallets with an equal amount of overhang on each side of the pallet; but then this must not be wider than 1.8m. Any damaged or broken pallets will be rejected.

You should also make sure your pallets are standard 4 way-access pallets, typically wooden pallets as Amazon will not accept plastic pallets. These must measure 1200mm x 1000mm x 150mm and be shrink-wrapped to meet the Amazon packing requirements.

Finally, there should be no loose cartons sat at the top of the pallet. You will need to label the pallets on a minimum size of A4. If you do not have a printer, you can simply write the labels out on a plain piece of A4 paper. You must include the following:

• To (FC Address)
• From (Vendor Address)
• Purchase Orders
• Number of Cartons
• Number of Units
• Pallet Count

Double-Stacked Pallet Requirements

For double-stacked pallets, the height (including the height of the pallet) must not exceed 3m, meaning each pallet should be no taller than 1.5m.

The combined weight should be no greater than 500kg, as this is the maximum limit. The top layer of the bottom pallet must also consist of flat, full layers to avoid creating an unsteady load.

You must not secure double-stacked pallets together by shrink wrapping them, and they must not be treble-stacked either. If you are sending multiples of singular items between 1.55m and 1.8m (when laid flat), these must be no taller than 1.8m in height when stacked.

If any pallets are considered unsuitable and do not adhere to these requirements, they will be returned by Amazon and you may incur additional charges for recollection and redelivery.

What Does Non-Inventory Freight Mean?

Non-inventory freight is for Amazon's use and benefit. For example, packaging and printer ink, etc. Our partner, Palletline will deliver the freight directly to Amazon via a 'drop and swap' operation, which runs between 6am and 6pm.

To manifest non-inventory freight, Palletline enters an Amazon code in the postcode box on their system. For example, they would use 'LCY2' rather than the postcode RM18 7AN. Plus, they have to ensure that they enter 'non-inventory into the mandatory Amazon booking detail boxes.

From there, the bookings team will allocate this to a consolidated load and make Amazon aware that the freight is due to come in and on which trailer. Like all other Amazon shipments, a POD should be returned within 48 hours and uploaded to the system.

Freight for a Third Party on Site at Amazon

Any freight delivered into Amazon FCs but is not specifically for Amazon will be manifested as a normal job through Palletline; this would mean using 'RM18 7AN' rather than LCY2.

A time must be stated, an appropriately timed delivery surcharge selected along with a reference, and a dedicated on-site contact will be entered into the delivery notes section of the system.

If the above is dismissed, the freight will be re-routed at the requesting member's expense - charter waiting times and the POD process would still apply.

However, some freight can be delivered during an evening and added to a consolidated load. The format for 'Freight for Amazon's use' would need to be followed for this.

Please get in touch for details on sending an Amazon pallet delivery with PalletOnline. Send a message via our Live Chat service or call us on 0845 658 0049 and speak with us directly.