Plastic pallets delivered in Tennessee

Three grand divisions, one long interstate

Tennessee divides itself into West, Middle and East, and the law even recognizes the three grand divisions. I-40 ties them together, running about 450 miles from the Mississippi River at Memphis through Jackson, Nashville and Knoxville to the North Carolina line.

Each division has its own freight character: river, rail and air cargo in the west, auto and healthcare in the middle, and manufacturing in the Appalachian valleys of the east.

Memphis: air, rail and the river

Memphis International Airport hosts the FedEx World Hub, and for years it has handled more cargo than nearly any airport in the world. Shippers who need overnight delivery across the country put distribution buildings nearby, many of them in southeast Memphis and across the line in DeSoto County, Mississippi.

Five Class I railroads serve Memphis, and the Port of Memphis on the Mississippi is one of the busiest inland ports on the river. Containers arrive by rail from the West Coast and the Gulf and get broken down onto pallets for regional trucks.

Air cargo favors light pallets, since weight costs money on every flight. A nestable model saves space on the return trip, but check that its dynamic rating covers the load.

West Tennessee's flat farmland grows cotton, soybeans and corn, and Memphis has long traded cotton. Gins and seed processors ship bales and bagged seed, which are heavy, dense loads; ask for a model whose static and dynamic figures cover a full bale or stack with room to spare.

• Nestable plastic pallets →

Middle Tennessee builds cars

Nissan's plant in Smyrna is one of the largest auto assembly plants in North America, and GM builds vehicles in Spring Hill, south of Nashville. Volkswagen assembles in Chattanooga, and Ford's BlueOval City site lies in West Tennessee near Stanton.

Parts suppliers along I-24 and I-65 feed those lines on returnable loops. The auto trade's common 48x45 footprint suits racks and totes designed around it, and plastic pallets hold their shape over many trips.

Nashville is also a national center for hospital management companies, which drives a busy flow of medical supplies through regional DCs.

Clarksville, beside Fort Campbell on the Kentucky line, has a washing-machine plant and a tire factory. Defense shippers there often specify the 40x48 footprint the military uses, and appliance makers want decks wide and flat enough to carry boxed washers without overhang.

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

Whiskey, food and the eastern valleys

Tennessee whiskey comes from distilleries in Lynchburg, Tullahoma and the hills around Nashville. Filled barrels go into rickhouses, while bottled cases leave on pallets that carry heavy glass for their footprint, so the dynamic rating of the model is the figure to check.

East Tennessee mixes chemicals in Kingsport, consumer goods and food plants around Knoxville, and auto and appliance work around Chattanooga. Drums and pails from the chemical plants ride on 48x48 or 44x44 footprints.

Food plants that wash down floors can take wood out of the room by switching to plastic decks that hose clean.

• Drum pallets →

How a Tennessee order ships

Full orders travel on a 53-foot dry van, about 52.5 feet long and 100 inches wide inside. One published heavy-duty nestable 40x48 from Rehrig Pacific loads 1,200 to the trailer; rackable models with runners take far more space per pallet.

LTL serves a single distillery, a supplier in Cookeville or a food plant in Morristown that needs a few stacks. The state is long and narrow, so a delivered price to Bristol and one to Memphis can differ more than the map suggests.

Selling surplus pallets from Tennessee

Memphis distribution buildings collect plastic pallets that come in under customers' freight and never go back. Send us count, footprint, resin, condition and pickup ZIP, and we make an offer for them as pallets or as regrind. Mixed makers sharing one footprint can sell as a mixed lot.

Auto suppliers in the Murfreesboro and Lebanon area hold dedicated returnables once a model year winds down. Hot-stamped part numbers or a customer's logo on the side panel do not prevent resale, though pallets bent by forklift tines or missing a leg will be priced as regrind.

• Mixed lots of used pallets →