Excerpts from the report: During recent years the pallet box has been used as a handling container for many agricultural products. It is an economical handling container for transporting large quantities of products or materials over long distances. The pallet box was not used for handling fresh fruits and vegetables for many years because growers thought that perishable commodities would be injured if handled in this way. This study was undertaken to establish guidelines that will enable packinghouse operators to determine the economic feasibility of converting to pallet box handling. The specific objective of this study was to compare the labor and equipment costs for pallet box handling with those for field box handling on the basis of operating conditions prevalent in typical commercial peach packinghouses.