Plastic pallets delivered in Maryland

Baltimore's harbor and what crosses it

The Port of Baltimore sits far up the Chesapeake Bay, which puts it closer to the Midwest by land than most East Coast ports. Seagirt Marine Terminal handles containers, and the Dundalk and other public terminals move autos, farm and construction machinery and other roll-on, roll-off cargo, a trade in which Baltimore has led US ports for years.

Warehouses ring the harbor and line I-95 between Baltimore and the Delaware line, around Perryville, Aberdeen, Edgewood and the Middle River area. Imports there are unloaded, stored on rack and reloaded for stores up and down the coast.

On the old Bethlehem Steel site at Sparrows Point, Tradepoint Atlantic has turned thousands of acres of former mill land into a logistics park with its own deep-water berths, rail lines and large fulfillment buildings. Receivers there and in Dundalk can usually take a full trailer at a dock door, which keeps freight per pallet lower than piecemeal LTL drops.

Plastic pallets used for export skip ISPM 15. APHIS lists plastic as an alternative to wood packaging, not subject to its rules, so a container leaving Seagirt on plastic needs no heat-treatment mark.

• Plastic export pallets →

Hagerstown's crossroads

Hagerstown sits where I-70 meets I-81, near the borders with Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I-81 is the inland truck route between New England and the South, and I-70 runs east to Baltimore and west to the Ohio Valley, so the Hagerstown area and nearby Frederick have filled with distribution buildings.

DCs there run high-bay selective rack. A pallet that spans two beams needs a published racked rating, which is usually the lowest of a model's three numbers. Nestables rarely carry one, so ask for a rackable with runners.

• Rackable plastic pallets →
• Reading load ratings →

The I-270 life sciences corridor

I-270 runs from the Capital Beltway at Bethesda northwest through Rockville and Gaithersburg to Frederick. Along it sits one of the largest biotech and life sciences clusters in the US, close to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and Fort Detrick in Frederick. Vaccine, biologics and cell therapy makers, contract manufacturers and lab suppliers fill the office parks.

Clean manufacturing suites and cold-chain storage at those sites want pallets that wipe down, don't shed fibers and work in freezers. Pharmaceutical and cleanroom pallets have smooth, closed decks for that, though they're usually lighter duty than a rackable. Match the dynamic rating to the heaviest pallet of product.

• Plastic pallets for pharmaceutical distribution →
• Cleanroom plastic pallets →

Maryland by region

Spice, sugar, chickens and crabs

McCormick, the spice company, is based in Hunt Valley north of Baltimore. Domino runs a large sugar refinery on the Baltimore waterfront, its sign a city landmark. Dry food plants like these use plastic pallets to keep splinters, nails and pests out of production rooms.

The Eastern Shore is poultry country. Perdue Farms is based in Salisbury, and processing plants and hatcheries spread across the Delmarva peninsula. Crab and oyster packers work the bay towns. Wet plants call for solid-deck HDPE that takes ice and washdown, and FSMA's sanitary transport rule wants food equipment adequately cleanable.

• Plastic pallets for meat and poultry →

Delivery and selling surplus

Truckloads arrive on a 53-foot van, about 52.5 feet long inside. LTL serves Baltimore, the I-270 corridor and Hagerstown daily and the Eastern Shore across the Bay Bridge on longer schedules. Bay Bridge traffic on summer weekends can slow a delivery, so weekday receiving is easier.

To sell used or cracked plastic pallets, send the count, footprint, resin code, condition and pickup ZIP. We reply with an offer for reusable pallets or regrind.