Plastic pallets delivered in Pennsylvania

Two warehouse belts and the roads under them

Pennsylvania sits within a day's drive of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and two corridors have turned into some of the densest warehouse districts on the East Coast.

The Lehigh Valley around Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton grew along I-78, the main truck route into northern New Jersey and New York City. The Cumberland Valley around Carlisle, Harrisburg, Chambersburg and Shippensburg grew along I-81, which runs from Tennessee to the Canadian border and links with the Turnpike at Carlisle.

Racked storage in the I-78 and I-81 buildings

Most of the big buildings in both valleys store goods in selective racking, several levels high. A pallet that spans two beams with no support underneath is carrying its racked load, which is usually the lowest of its three ratings and the one to check first.

Ask the maker for that figure on the exact model. Rackable pallets with three or more runners, sometimes with steel reinforcement molded in, are the usual answer, while nestable pallets without a racked rating belong on the floor or in flow lanes.

Cold storage buildings near Harrisburg and in the Lehigh Valley run coolers and freezers, where HDPE holds its toughness at low temperatures.

• Rackable plastic pallets →
• Reading load ratings →

Snack food, chocolate and mushrooms

South-central Pennsylvania is one of the country's snack food centers. Pretzel and potato chip makers in York and Hanover, chocolate in Hershey and bakeries around Lancaster ship packaged food that is light for its volume, so stack height and deck surface matter more than raw load.

Lancaster County is one of the largest dairy counties in the country, and plants there need decks that survive hot-water washdown.

Kennett Square in Chester County grows a large share of the nation's mushrooms. Mushroom houses are damp all year, and a pallet that does not take up water or grow mold suits them.

• Bakery and snack plants →
• Dairy plants →

Philadelphia, pharma and imported fruit

The Port of Philadelphia is a major East Coast gateway for refrigerated imports, especially fruit from Chile and other Southern Hemisphere growers during the North American winter. Cold storage buildings along the Delaware River take that fruit straight off the ship.

The suburbs west and north of the city, around King of Prussia and in Montgomery and Bucks counties, hold a cluster of pharmaceutical and biotech sites. Those buyers ask for smooth decks with no recesses, which are easier to wipe down in GMP areas.

Export loads out of Philadelphia can go on plastic pallets with no ISPM 15 heat treatment, because that standard covers wood packaging only.

• Pharmaceutical distribution →

Getting a load into Pennsylvania

Truckloads move on a 53-foot dry van that measures about 52.5 feet long, 100 inches wide and 110 inches high inside. A heavy-duty nestable 40x48 that Rehrig Pacific publishes ships 1,200 to a trailer; rackable models take much more room each.

LTL works for a dairy in Lancaster County or a molder in Erie that wants a few stacks. Some farm sites lack a dock, so mention that when you ask for a quote.

Erie, on the lake shore, has a strong base of plastics molders and builds locomotives, while Scranton and Wilkes-Barre warehouses along I-81 and I-84 reach New England and upstate New York overnight. Both draw pallets from the same eastern lanes as Allentown.

Selling surplus pallets in Pennsylvania

Third-party logistics operators in the Lehigh and Cumberland valleys change clients often and can be left holding plastic pallets that belonged to the last one. Send count, footprint, resin, condition and pickup ZIP, and we offer to buy them as pallets or as regrind.

Western Pennsylvania plants that make metal parts or coatings sometimes retire pallets that are scarred but whole. Those can resell as Grade B if the deck and runners are sound, while pallets with cracked legs go to regrind. A photo of the date clock and the resin triangle helps us price the lot.

• Sell used plastic pallets →