Plastic pallets delivered in Kentucky

Air hubs on both ends of I-71

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport is home to UPS Worldport, the company's global air hub, where packages are sorted overnight and flown out before dawn. Distribution and e-commerce buildings cluster around it and along I-65 south toward Shepherdsville.

At the other end of I-71, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Boone County hosts DHL's Americas hub and an Amazon air hub. Hebron, Florence and Walton have filled with fulfillment and logistics buildings as a result.

Air freight rewards light pallets, since every pound costs money in the air. A nestable model nests for the return trip, but make sure its dynamic rating covers the actual load.

Kentucky hubs and what they mean for pallets

Cars, trucks and appliances

Toyota's plant in Georgetown is the company's largest anywhere, building sedans and SUVs north of Lexington. Ford builds trucks and SUVs at two Louisville plants, and GM builds the Corvette in Bowling Green.

Parts reach those lines from suppliers along I-75, I-65 and I-64 on returnable packaging. Plastic pallets in those loops keep their dimensions trip after trip, which matters for robots and conveyors, and the 48x45 footprint common in the auto trade fits many of the racks.

Louisville's Appliance Park has built refrigerators, dishwashers and laundry machines since the 1950s. Boxed appliances are tall and top-heavy, so a flat deck wide enough to avoid overhang and a solid dynamic rating both matter.

• Plastic pallets for automotive →
• 48x45 plastic pallets →

Bourbon country

Kentucky distills the great bulk of the world's bourbon, in Bardstown, Frankfort, Lawrenceburg, Loretto, Clermont and Louisville. Barrels age for years in rickhouses on their own racking systems, while bottled cases leave the bottling halls on pallets.

Cased glass is heavy for its footprint and rides on forks through bottling, warehousing and distribution. Check the dynamic rating of the exact model, and ask whether the deck has an anti-slip surface for shrink-wrapped cases.

Bottling halls are clean environments, and plastic decks that wipe down and never shed splinters suit them better than wood.

The whiskey trade pulls a long supply chain behind it. Cooperages in Lebanon and Louisville char new oak barrels, grain elevators ship corn, rye and malted barley to the stills, and glass, closures and printed cartons arrive for the bottling lines. Around Lexington, horse farms add a steady flow of bagged feed and bedding that sits in damp barns, where plastic outlasts wood.

• Plastic pallets for beverage →

Interstates and the river

I-65 runs from Indiana through Louisville and Elizabethtown to Bowling Green and Nashville. I-75 crosses from Cincinnati through Lexington and Corbin toward Knoxville, and I-64 links Louisville, Frankfort, Lexington and Ashland. I-71 joins Louisville and Northern Kentucky, while I-24 and I-69 serve the western end around Paducah.

The Ohio River forms the entire northern border, and barge terminals at Louisville, Owensboro, Henderson and Paducah move grain, coal, chemicals and steel. Chemical plants in the Calvert City area ship drums that ride on 48x48 or 44x44 footprints.

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Truckload, LTL and selling surplus

A truckload travels on a 53-foot dry van, about 52.5 feet long and 100 inches wide inside. A Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestable 40x48 is published at 1,200 per trailer, while rackable models with three runners load far fewer. LTL brings smaller orders to a distillery in Nelson County or a plant in Somerset.

Eastern Kentucky towns in the mountains sit off the interstates on winding roads, so delivered prices to Hazard or Pikeville reflect the extra miles.

Selling works through the same desk. Send count, footprint, resin, condition and pickup ZIP, and we offer for the pallets as they are or as regrind. Fulfillment buildings near the air hubs collect pallets under inbound freight that rarely go back.

• Sell plastic pallets →