Oklahoma County

Oklahoma County held 796,292 people in 2020 and is the metro's core. Oklahoma City is its seat, and Edmond, Midwest City, Del City and Bethany sit in it.

The county in brief

Seat: Oklahoma City.
Area: 718 square miles, of which 9.6 are water.
Interstates: I-35, I-40, I-44, I-235, I-240, I-335 and I-344.
Cities: Bethany, Choctaw, Del City, Edmond, Harrah, Midwest City, Nichols Hills, Nicoma Park, Oklahoma City, Spencer, The Village and Warr Acres.
Neighbours: Logan, Lincoln, Pottawatomie, Cleveland, Canadian and Kingfisher counties.

Airports, rail and turnpikes

Beyond the interstates, the county holds Will Rogers World Airport, Wiley Post Airport in Bethany, Tinker Air Force Base and the Amtrak Heartland Flyer station downtown. Freight users mostly care about the turnpikes: the Turner heading northeast, the Kilpatrick curving around the north and west, and the Kickapoo on the east side.

A request from any town in the county is welcome. Name the town and the nearest road, and mention any of these landmarks near the dock, since it helps a driver find the building and judge the approach.

Edmond

Edmond, population 94,428 in 2020, sits just north of Oklahoma City on I-35 and US 77, and BNSF freight runs through it on the old Santa Fe line.

The city targets wholesale trade, light manufacturing, information technology and professional services. Crest Foods is headquartered here, and the Chamber lists Petra Industries (367) and Crest Foods (300) among its manufacturers. Wholesale and food distribution produce clean, steady stacks of 48x40s: Grade A and B, shrink-wrapped, often with a clear count, which suits recurring dock pickups. If the pallets touch food, the grade decides whether they can be reused at all; see food and beverage.

Midwest City

Midwest City, population 58,409 in 2020, sits on I-40 beside Tinker Air Force Base and takes its name from the base's first name, the Midwest Air Depot. Its economy depends heavily on federal dollars through the base.

The shippers are small: parts houses, shops and retailers, Rose State College and Midwest Regional Medical Center, rather than warehouse campuses. Piles are modest and consistent, with clean 48x40s from the aerospace-adjacent trade and mixed stock from the stores along North Air Depot and around the mall. Tornadoes struck the city in 1999 and again on 8 May 2003, and storm cleanup leaves broken pallets for clearing.

Del City

Del City, population 21,822 in 2020, borders Tinker Air Force Base three miles east of Oklahoma City and one mile west of Midwest City. I-40 runs through it, and I-35 lies a short drive west.

MTM Recognition is the largest industry, with 400 of its more than 750 staff in Del City. Plaques and trophies ship on light pallets, so a lighter grade does the job. Beyond it are auto and trade businesses along I-40 and the retail strip, so piles are small and mixed: a pickup of a few dozen, with sizes named. See mixed loads.

Bethany

Bethany, population 20,831 in 2020, lies about ten miles west of downtown Oklahoma City. The 39th Street Expressway, part of Historic Route 66, is its main road.

Wiley Post Airport anchors a business park of about fifty aviation-related companies. Aviation parts are small, valuable and fussy about packaging, so their pallets are generally clean, undamaged and often made to a set footprint, and anything going abroad needs ISPM 15 marks: see heat-treated pallets and aerospace supply. Southern Nazarene and Southwestern Christian universities leave a handful of pallets a week in term time, more at the start of each term: a scheduled pickup, not a sale of a hundred. Older commercial strips along the expressway have small lots and tight turns, where a full-size trailer cannot always reach the pile.

Go deeper

Pallets across Oklahoma City, district by districtPallets bought, sold and cleared across Oklahoma City: the airport district, Tinker, northeast I-35, Stockyards City and the west Reno strip.