Plastic pallets delivered in Ohio

Six metros, five interstates that matter

Ohio's freight runs on a grid. I-70 crosses the middle of the state through Dayton, Columbus and Zanesville. I-71 runs diagonally from Cincinnati through Columbus to Cleveland, and I-75 runs north from Cincinnati through Dayton, Lima and Findlay to Toledo and Detroit.

Across the north, the Ohio Turnpike carries I-80 and I-90 between Indiana and Pennsylvania, and I-76 and I-77 connect Akron, Canton and Youngstown. Because so many lanes cross here, Ohio buildings serve much of the Midwest and the East Coast within a day's truck run.

Rickenbacker and the Columbus distribution belt

Rickenbacker, on the south side of Columbus, combines a cargo airport with a Norfolk Southern intermodal terminal. Containers from East Coast ports arrive there by rail, and the warehouses around it break them down onto pallets for regional delivery.

Buildings in that belt and along I-70 west of Columbus run high selective racking. A pallet going into that racking needs a published racked load from its maker, so these buyers usually ask for rackable models with runners on the bottom.

Floor-stacked goods in the same buildings can use stackable pallets, which carry high static loads but are not built to span two beams.

• Rackable plastic pallets →
• Nestable vs rackable →

The I-75 auto corridor

I-75 between Cincinnati and Toledo is lined with auto parts plants, and the state has vehicle assembly in Marysville, Toledo and elsewhere. Parts move in returnable loops between suppliers and assembly lines, often on plastic pallets that go back empty in nested or stacked form.

The auto trade commonly uses the 48x45 footprint, which suits the racks and totes built around it. Returnable fleets also need a resin and molding that hold up to many trips, which is why structural foam and heavy injection-molded models show up here.

Ask for the dynamic rating of any model that will ride on conveyors or tuggers inside the plant.

Toledo earned the name Glass City from its bottle, window and windshield plants, and glass is dense, fragile freight. Cincinnati's soap, detergent and personal-care makers ship liquids in bottles and jugs, where a deck with a raised lip or anti-slip strips keeps a shrink-wrapped load from shifting.

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

Lake Erie, the Ohio River and the farm counties

Toledo and Cleveland both handle Great Lakes shipping, and the Ohio River forms the state's southern border, with barge terminals from Cincinnati up to Steubenville. Overseas container freight for Ohio mostly arrives by rail from coastal ports rather than through the lakes.

For exporters loading containers at an Ohio plant, plastic pallets skip the heat treatment and IPPC mark that ISPM 15 requires for wood.

Ohio farms also feed a large food economy. The state is one of the biggest egg producers in the country, Wayne and Holmes counties make cheese, and western Ohio grows corn and soybeans for processors. Egg packers and cheese plants wash floors daily, which is where a hose-down plastic deck earns its place over wood.

How Ohio orders ship

A truckload rides on a 53-foot dry van, about 52.5 feet long and 100 inches wide inside. Count per trailer depends on the model; one published heavy-duty nestable 40x48 from Rehrig Pacific fits 1,200 to a trailer, while a racking model with runners takes a far smaller count.

Smaller orders go LTL to a single dock. That suits a Cincinnati flavor plant or an Akron molder that needs a few stacks rather than a trailer.

Selling plastic pallets from an Ohio plant

When an auto program ends, its dedicated returnable pallets often become surplus all at once. Send us the count, the footprint, the resin code molded into the part, the condition and the pickup ZIP, and we reply with an offer to buy them as pallets or as regrind.

Look at the date clock on the underside before you send the details; the molded month and year tells a buyer how old the fleet is.

• How a lot of used pallets is priced →