Plastic pallets delivered in Nebraska

A state built along one railroad and one interstate

Union Pacific is headquartered in Omaha, and its main line follows the Platte River across Nebraska much as the first transcontinental railroad did. At North Platte, UP's Bailey Yard is the largest rail classification yard in the world.

I-80 runs beside the railroad for most of the state, from Omaha through Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney and North Platte to the Wyoming line. Almost every large Nebraska plant outside the Omaha area sits within a short drive of it. I-29 skirts the eastern border on the Iowa side, and I-76 branches off toward Denver near Big Springs.

Omaha also serves as headquarters town for Berkshire Hathaway, Mutual of Omaha and several engineering and insurance firms; for pallet buyers the relevant fact is its parcel sorting, grocery warehousing and the meat plants that remain in South Omaha.

Stops along I-80

Beef plants and the cold chain

Nebraska is one of the top cattle-feeding and beef-producing states. Large packing plants operate in Grand Island, Lexington and Schuyler, and smaller ones in other towns. Omaha itself is home to well-known meat brands that ship steaks by mail order.

Packing plants run their pallets through sanitation, coolers and freezers. A solid-deck HDPE model with sealed edges holds up to caustic washdown and stays tough in the cold. The model's food-contact status comes from its maker's paperwork; the federal resin rule at 21 CFR 177.1520 covers polyethylene and polypropylene as materials.

• Plastic pallets for meat and poultry →
• Cold storage warehousing →

Fremont poultry and Lincoln plants

Costco opened a large chicken processing plant at Fremont to supply its own stores, with growers spread across eastern Nebraska. Poultry plants are wet, cold and audited, and they need a pallet that can be sanitized as easily as the floor beneath it.

Lincoln builds railcars, utility vehicles and other products at a large Kawasaki plant, and has food plants of its own. Manufacturing loops there tend to use rackable or heavy-duty models with a published racked load, since parts sit on beams between steps.

Corn processing and ethanol plants dot the state, including a large Cargill corn milling campus at Blair north of Omaha. Bagged ingredients from those plants travel on 48x40 pallets into food and feed plants.

Farm cooperatives and agronomy dealers in nearly every county handle crop protection products and additives in steel drums and IBC totes. A 48x48 drum pallet with a containment lip or a 44x44 model keeps four drums square on the forks, and a smooth plastic deck can be rinsed after a leak instead of soaking it up the way wood does.

• Rackable plastic pallets →
• Drum plastic pallets →

How pallets reach a Nebraska dock

Truckloads travel on a 53-foot van, about 110 inches tall inside. Nestable pallets fit the most per load; one published heavy-duty nestable 40x48 from Rehrig Pacific ships 1,200 to a trailer.

LTL service is frequent in Omaha and Lincoln. Towns farther west along I-80 get regular service at longer transit, and points off the interstate, such as the Sandhills or the Panhandle north of I-80, take extra time. Winter wind and snow on I-80 can close stretches of the road, so allow for weather on winter orders.

• Plastic pallets by the truckload →

Used pallets and selling back

Graded used pallets are a sensible fit for Nebraska DCs and ag businesses that don't need a matched fleet. Grade A means a whole deck, intact runners or legs and no repairs; Grade B is structurally sound with scuffs, old labels or faded color.

To sell surplus or cracked pallets, send the count, footprint, resin code, condition and pickup ZIP. We reply with an offer to buy them as pallets or as regrind.

• Used plastic pallets →
• Sell used plastic pallets →