Pallets for sale around the bay

Which kind of pallet fits the load

The words on a listing

New England docks use skid and pallet for the same object. A GMA pallet is the 48 x 40 stringer pallet that grocery, retail and most distribution in the metro ship on. A four-way pallet takes forks from all four sides, which busy cross-docks and fulfillment buildings prefer.

How the bay changes the choice

Seafood rooms in New Bedford are wet and cold, so dryness decides; see pallets for cold rooms and fish houses. Quonset and ProvPort ship overseas, so the ISPM 15 stamp decides there. The Blackstone Valley mills take small, mixed buys, a few dozen at a time. Fulfillment docks in Johnston, Fall River and Mansfield think in trailers.

If you are not sure which row you are in, send the request anyway and say what the pallets will carry. The answer to "which pallet" almost always starts with the load.

Used pallets

Used pallets are sorted by grade, and the grade tells you how much repair is in the wood.

What each used grade looks like

The difference between A and B is cosmetic more than structural. A Grade B skid carries the same load; it just is not pretty. Grade B stock may have repaired stringers or plugs larger than 1¼ inches.

What wear to look for

• A plug or a plate nailed over a split board: Grade B.
• A companion stringer fastened beside a cracked one: Grade B, and worth a look at the nails.
• Missing or loose deck boards, or spacing that has opened up: a Grade C sign.
• Dark, damp wood with a musty smell: reject it for food or cold rooms, whatever the grade. Moisture matters more than looks.
• Pooled, painted pallets from rental companies are not part of the used market; see why.

Which size to name

Most used stock on the bay is 48 x 40. Other sizes turn up in smaller piles, so name the size you need early: 42 x 42 for beverage and paint, 48 x 48 for drums, and 48 x 45 for automotive parts.

A request that says "48 x 40, Grade B, 200 a week, Pawtucket" can be read at once. One that says "some pallets" cannot.

Bulk and truckloads

Bulk pallets are bought by the trailer, not by the pallet.

Counting a trailer

The counts assume an inside floor of 630 x 98 inches, a single layer and no overhang. Real trailers differ, and a stacked load carries more. Pallets per trailer shows the method for all six sizes.

Who buys by the trailer

Fulfillment and distribution docks do: Amazon's Johnston building is 3.8 million square feet, and Myles Standish Industrial Park in Taunton holds about 100 companies in about 5.8 million square feet of buildings. A dock that moves hundreds of pallets a week thinks in trailer counts, and distribution and fulfillment shows where those docks cluster.

What a recurring order needs

• The size and grade, and whether mixed grade is acceptable.
• The count per trailer you expect, and how many trailers per week or month.
• The town and the dock: height, hours, whether there is a ramp, a leveller or ground-level doors, and whether a trailer can back in.
• Whether any load leaves the country and needs heat-treated stock.
• Where a trailer of pallets will be kept dry between deliveries, away from the dock door and clear of a fire lane.

A schedule is a request, not a promise on either side. Say what you expect and the desk reads it against what is available.

New pallets

A new pallet is built from all-new lumber and never shipped on before. It is usually built to a spec sheet covering size, deck boards and fasteners, instead of being pulled from a sorted stack.

What a spec sheet covers

When new beats used

New makes sense when a load must match a spec: a customer who audits pallets, a rack with a tight tolerance, or a machine that rides the same skid for years. New also removes the grade question, since there is nothing to sort.

Used makes sense when the pallet is a carrier that leaves the building. A new pallet that will be stacked behind a dock for a season, or shipped to a customer who never returns it, is a cost without a benefit.

What the lumber is

Hardwood frames hold fasteners and abuse; softwood frames are lighter. Which is right depends on the load, and a spec sheet says so rather than leaving the mill to guess.

About half a billion pallets are made each year, and about two billion are in use across the country.

Custom pallets

A custom pallet is built for a load that does not sit well on 48 x 40: a long machine part, a drum cluster, an import crate. Rhode Island has a lot of those loads, from marine manufacturing in Bristol and Warren and the jewelry and metals trades around Providence to the defense and shipbuilding suppliers at Quonset.

Before you commit to a custom footprint, check the six stocked sizes. A 48 x 45 or a 48 x 42 may already cover the load, and a stocked size is easier to buy and sell back than a one-off. A custom build earns its place when it saves a trailer slot, or protects a load that would otherwise overhang.

Custom is a build, not a stock item, so send the drawing or the measurements: the footprint with the overhang you can allow, the stack height, the weight in pounds, two-way or four-way entry, whether the load leaves the country and needs the ISPM 15 stamp, and whether it sits in a wet or cold room, where dryness may matter more than strength.

Clean food pallets

A clean pallet for a food or nutrition line is dry, intact and free of stains and odour. Grade matters less than condition, and a Grade B pallet that is dry and sound can beat a Grade A one that sat in a damp yard.

What a food plant should ask for

• Dry wood. Below about 20% moisture content, wood will not support mould, mildew, decay or fungus.
• No odour. A pallet that smells of chemicals, fish or damp has been stored badly.
• No stains where a case will sit, and no protruding nails or splinters where a hand or a bag will touch.
• Intact boards. Deck boards that are cracked or missing let cartons sag.
• A stated treatment. If the pallet goes into a plant that expects heat-treated stock, say so in the request.

What the grade can and cannot tell you

The A and B labels describe repair, not cleanliness. A Grade A pallet has had no repairs and needs none; it can still be damp or stained. A Grade B pallet has plugs or plates; it can be perfectly dry and sound. Treat grade as one of three questions, after dryness and cleanliness.

If you are not sure how the pallets were stored, say so. Wood that has been stacked in the open through a New England winter tells a different story from wood kept on a dry floor.

The food-grade guide goes further on what to specify, and the moisture guide explains the dry line.