There are so many ways to lift pallets safely. Yet I routinely see people lifting unsafely. I caught these two examples literally on the first job I walked by in Washington State, then again on the next block. This is where the state as a requirement for ASME rated attachments but the Crane Department in Washington can't seem to figure out what that means. ASME can include straps in their designs or use. This doesn't exclude the requirement for the support to be rated. yet...
There are solutions to these issues available. We have conventional forks as an option. Crane rated. Self-leveling or you can manually set the level. I know the manuals aren't popular, but you get the full rating of the forks. If you have self leveling ones you honestly lose the first 25% of the rating. Up to 4400 lbs the tines on ours are hollow making them easy to adjust as a single person.
'Or if you wanted a little more protection in case you are concerned an item might fall off, we have forks designed to have a net installed to catch items. Charge the forks in the pallet and lift just off of the ground. Install the net and retain larger items in the Safety Net. These forks are speced for the UK market.
We also have several other options of boxes that you can put a pallet in, or wrap around the forks.
You can get these with a ramp so once you land it you can pull the items out with a pallet jack. These have lifting eyes, or you can lift it with a set of forks and secure it to the forks.
Our 1058SC is a cage and set of tines in one. Land it over a pallet and charge the tine. Lift a couple of feet up and you can close in the gates below. Then everything is wrapped up in structure and it's level on a four point lift. You do need a little more room for these to get the tines in and out. But it won an innovation award in 2018 in the UK.
Or we have standard crane bins where you land the pallet in the bin. You can do this by forklift, Pallet jack if you have the ramped version, crane fork, or another means I'm probably not thinking of. Close the gates or the ramp and away you go. Off load by hand or otherwise. Rated at 3300 or 6600 lbs depending on a single or double pallet version. 
There are a number of ways to make this work. The double pallet bins with the ramp are my suggestion. $3144 plus shipping. Affordable. 6600 lbs. Fly two pallets at once. The crane crew can drop and let them handle it with a pallet jack. Grab on another cycle and send it down. It saves a lift cycle with the forks. Everything is prepped without the crane, or can be. Everything is wrapped up in the cage and ASME B30.20 certified and maintained as level by the four point lifting system.
We don't really have an excuse to not be lifting safety when it comes to pallets. I saw these photos recently online that illustrate that it's not a unique problem. We just need to do better. If we can help at www.CraneGear.net, we'll look forward to it. Let's prevent this sort of practices in hoisting.
