Plastic pallets delivered in Oklahoma

Three interstates cross at Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is one of the few US cities where three major interstates meet. I-35 runs north-south from Wichita through Oklahoma City and Norman to the Texas line and Dallas. I-40 crosses east-west from Fort Smith to Amarillo, carrying a heavy flow of coast-to-coast trucks. I-44 runs diagonally from Wichita Falls through Lawton and Oklahoma City, then becomes the Turner Turnpike to Tulsa and the Will Rogers Turnpike toward Joplin and St. Louis.

Distribution buildings cluster where those routes meet, around the Oklahoma City airport, the I-35 and I-240 interchange and along I-44 in west Tulsa. Grocery, retail and parts distributors there use rackable 48x40 pallets in selective rack and nestables for one-way loads to stores.

A river port 445 miles from the Mississippi

The Tulsa Port of Catoosa sits at the head of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which runs barges from the Mississippi up the Arkansas and Verdigris rivers to the edge of Tulsa. It is one of the most inland ocean-connected ports in the US, with an industrial park of manufacturers and terminals beside the docks. The Port of Muskogee works the same waterway downstream.

Barges carry steel, fertilizer, grain and heavy project cargo. Tenants in the port parks ship finished goods out by truck and rail, and many use plastic pallets for in-plant moves and returnable loops with their customers.

• Plastic pallets delivered in Arkansas →

Aircraft maintenance in Tulsa and Midwest City

Tinker Air Force Base, in Midwest City east of Oklahoma City, houses the Air Force's largest depot maintenance complex, overhauling engines and aircraft for the fleet. American Airlines runs its biggest maintenance base at Tulsa International Airport.

Engine and component shops move expensive, heavy parts between work cells and stores. Wood skids leave splinters and debris near engines, and a rackable plastic pallet with a published racked rating suits parts that sit on beams between steps. Defense supply often uses the 40x48 footprint, so check what the shop's packaging spec asks for.

• Rackable plastic pallets →
• Heavy duty plastic pallets →

Oilfield drums and the Cushing hub

Cushing, between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, is a major crude oil storage and pipeline hub and the delivery point for the benchmark US crude futures contract. Producers and service firms work the Anadarko Basin and other fields across the state.

Oilfield supply runs on drums and IBC totes of drilling fluids, additives, lubricants and treating chemicals. A 48x48 or 44x44 drum pallet, often with a containment lip, keeps four drums square and lets a crew hose off spills. Polyethylene resists many of those fluids; check the maker's chemical resistance chart for the exact product.

• Drum plastic pallets →
• Plastic pallets for chemicals →

Tires, pork and wheat country

Goodyear builds tires in Lawton, a plant that feeds a steady flow of rubber compounds and parts on pallets. In the far west Panhandle, a large pork plant at Guymon processes hogs raised in the surrounding counties. Its cut floors and coolers call for solid-deck HDPE that drains and takes sanitizer; the maker's documents for the exact model cover food-contact use.

North-central Oklahoma around Enid, Ponca City and Stillwater is wheat country, with grain elevators beside the BNSF and Union Pacific tracks, a refinery at Ponca City and seed, feed and fertilizer dealers who store bagged product on pallets in open-sided sheds. Plastic doesn't rot when blowing rain gets under that roof, though prolonged sun can age an unstabilized model.

• Plastic pallets for meat and poultry →

Getting pallets there and selling them back

A truckload ships on a 53-foot van, about 110 inches tall inside, to your dock. LTL reaches Oklahoma City and Tulsa often; the Panhandle and southeast hill country take longer. Spring storm season can delay freight on I-35 and I-40, so allow a little slack.

To sell surplus or cracked pallets from an Oklahoma site, send the count, footprint, resin code, condition and pickup ZIP. We reply with an offer for reusable pallets or regrind. Pallets that held oilfield chemicals need a note on what they carried.