Industry / Distribution
Pallets for fulfillment and retail distribution
Fulfillment and retail-distribution buildings take freight in volume and shed pallets in volume. In Oklahoma City that means 48x40s by the trailer and a steady layer of cores.
The scale of it
The Greater Oklahoma City Partnership says Amazon employs about 8,000 people in the region with more than 3.5 million square feet of distribution space. Hobby Lobby's 10-million-square-foot distribution center in Oklahoma City processes orders for more than 900 stores, and UPS has a distribution center employing 1,800. These are facts about the metro.
What the pile looks like
A distribution building receives pallets from hundreds of suppliers, so the stock that comes out is a blend: some excellent, some repaired, some broken. A sorted lot of Grade A or B 48x40s is a sellable thing; an unsorted mixed lot is a conversation. See sorted pallets and mixed loads.
Volume docks are also candidates for recurring pickups, because the pile rebuilds every week. And an outbound dock with its own pallets to buy can buy by the truckload.
Where it clusters
The airport district has the most floor space; northeast I-35 has the newest.
Questions a distribution lead can settle quickly
Warehouse managers deal with pallets by the thousand, and the details that matter are often already on a report. Cores count against the weekly total, and a returns dock usually has its own mix of pallets from many origins. If the building separates inbound from outbound, say which one the pile comes from, since returns are more mixed than shipping.
Dock height matters too. Ground-level doors receive straight trucks easily; raised docks work with trailers. A trailer can be loaded floor-stacked or turned, as the trailer counts guide explains, and the count per load follows.
Seasonal swings
Retail distribution runs hardest before the holidays, and the pallet pile rebuilds fastest after them. A dock that sends two trailers a week in November may send half that in February. Say whether the number you give is a peak or an average, and the answer can be fitted to the season instead of to a single figure.
Returns and reverse logistics
Returned goods arrive on all kinds of pallets, including ones from other companies. A returns dock therefore holds the most mixed pile in the building. Sorting it on arrival, even roughly, makes the pile worth more later.
Note any pallets that carry another company's brand or a rental pool mark. Those belong to someone else and should not be offered for sale.