Industries
Pallets for the work the metro does
Eight kinds of dock send most pallet requests in the metro: fulfillment and retail distribution, HVAC and equipment, aerospace and defense supply, oilfield supply, food and beverage, mills and plastics, livestock and feed, and stores. Each has a different pile.
What each dock tends to send
| Dock | Pile | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Fulfillment and retail distribution | Volume 48x40s plus cores | Open |
| HVAC and equipment | Heavy-unit skids; broken ones from the back lot | Open |
| Aerospace and defense supply | Small, clean, consistent | Open |
| Oilfield supply | Mixed outdoor piles | Open |
| Food and beverage | Clean, tidy and often cleared on a rhythm | Open |
| Mills and plastics | One size, one grade, by the truckload | Open |
| Livestock and feed | Small mixed lots, weathered | Open |
| Stores and small business | A back lot of assorted stock | Open |
Why industry matters to a pallet
Industry decides the load, and the load decides the pallet. Heavy equipment breaks boards; food docks want cleanliness; export parts need a heat-treatment mark. Sorting by industry is faster than sorting by town, and the areas then say which road you sit on. Pallet grades and pallet sizes apply across all of them.
A short checklist before you write
- Name the footprint, or measure one pallet length and width.
- Say how many, to within a quarter.
- Say how often the pile rebuilds.
- Describe the worst pallet you would still call sound.
- State whether any are plastic, metal or foreign-stamped.
Mills and Plastics Plants
Mills and plastics plants buy one size and one grade by the truckload, and their pallets carry heavy rolls, coils and sacks. Shawnee, east on I-40, is the metro's cluster.
Plastics film comes on wound rolls that must not crush, and metal tube ships in rigid bundles. Both need pallets that stay flat under concentrated weight, with consistent deck spacing, solid stringers and no repairs in the load area, because a warped pallet lets a roll shift. Flour sacks tolerate slightly uneven pallets better, but wet wood stains paper, so dry storage is worth the trouble.
A truckload order of one footprint and grade, delivered on a set day, is how these plants buy; the 48 x 40 size and Grade B describe the usual choice, and heat treatment matters if product ships abroad. Heavy loads crack boards, so what leaves the plant is a consistent pile: sound pallets suit a sorted-pallets request and cracked ones go to recycling. The plants themselves are listed under Shawnee.
Oilfield Supply Yards
Oilfield supply yards store pipe, fittings and equipment outdoors, so the pallets under them end up as a weathered, mixed pile of odd sizes. They sit mostly on the I-40 West leg, in Canadian County and along the west Reno strip.
Pipe and fittings move on skids and non-standard footprints, and yards stack them outside for months; a pallet on bare ground through an Oklahoma spring can pass 20% moisture content, above which decay can start (moisture and mould). List every size you can measure, say how long the pile has been outside and whether it was covered, and give a rough count and the access. A pile like this usually reads as a mixed load or cores, or clears through a pallet pickup.
Livestock and Feed
Feed mills, tack shops and farm suppliers receive bagged and boxed goods in small lots, so their pallets are mixed and often weathered. Stockyards City and Canadian County are the centers.
Sacks of grain, bales of hay, barrels of oil, fence rolls and tack each ride on whatever pallet the supplier chose, often cheap builds that have been wet and dried several times, so expect Grade C and cores mixed in with good stock. Grain dust in the gaps attracts moisture and pests, and a pallet with a heavy dust layer may be refused by a food handler even if it is sound. Around Stockyards City the auctions run Mondays and Tuesdays, so the end of the week is the quiet time for a pickup. A small, mixed lot is a mixed load or a single pickup; a few dozen for a loading area is a used pallets request.
In this section
- Pallets for fulfillment and retail distributionPallets for fulfillment and retail distribution in the Oklahoma City metro: sorted 48x40s, cores in volume and trailer-scale loads.
- Pallets for HVAC and equipmentPallets for HVAC and equipment plants near Oklahoma City, especially Norman: heavy units, built-to-spec skids and broken-stock clear-outs.
- Pallets for aerospace and defense supplyPallets for aerospace and defense suppliers around Tinker Air Force Base: clean, consistent stock and heat-treated pallets for export parts.
- Pallets for food and beveragePallets for food and beverage docks in the Oklahoma City metro: clean stock, 42x42 beverage pallets and regular pickups.
- Pallets for stores and small businessPallets for stores and small businesses in the Oklahoma City metro: back-lot piles, a few at a time and how to describe them.