What we carry.
- GMA wood pallets, 48 × 40. A, B, and recycled grades. Repaired on-site or shipped as-is.
- Wood pallets, custom sizes. 42 × 42, 48 × 48, 36 × 36, and odd-size special orders.
- Plastic pallets, 48 × 40. Nestable, rackable, and stackable formats. Great for sanitary applications.
- Combo loads. Wood-plastic pairs, often sized to a customer-specific recurring order.
- Heat-treated (ISPM-15) stock on request — for international shipment.
- Cardboard / corrugate pallets for single-trip air-freight applications.
Buying tips.
Used pallets have a hidden cost curve. The cheapest ones break the fastest and become a forklift safety issue. We grade ours so you know what you're getting:
| Grade | Condition | Stringers | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Like new | No repairs | Brand-sensitive outbound, retail-DC |
| B | Light wear, 1–2 repaired boards | Sound | General distribution |
| C | Repaired stringers, 3+ board repairs | Sound but visibly repaired | Internal plant moves |
| D | End of life | Compromised | Recycle to ground cover |
The closed-loop angle.
Pallets pair beautifully with our reverse-logistics programs. If you're shipping product out on used wood, why not have the empty pallets cycle back with your empty Gaylords? We run sixteen recurring pallet-return programs across the upper Midwest.
Pickup & recycling.
Got a pile of broken pallets? We'll pick them up if the count is worth a trip. End-of-life pallets get repurposed (mulch, ground cover, biomass fuel). We don't landfill wood any more than we landfill corrugate.
Pallet anatomy in plain English.
If you have ever wondered why the same nominal "48×40 GMA" pallet from two different vendors can ship at different prices and perform differently, the answer is in the details of how it's built. Here's the quick anatomy reference.
- Deck boards. The top boards that the load sits on. A standard GMA has 7 deck boards on the top deck.
- Stringers. The three lengthwise rails that the deck boards are nailed to. The stringers carry the structural load. Cracked stringer = end of pallet life.
- Bottom boards. The 3 to 5 boards on the bottom that distribute load to the warehouse floor or the truck bed.
- Chamfers / lead-in. The angled edges on the bottom boards that let a forklift tine slide in cleanly. Damaged chamfers slow you down and increase damage risk.
- Notches. Stringer cutouts that let a pallet jack engage the stringer from the side. Standard on a GMA.
Hardwood vs softwood pallets.
About 60% of the wood pallets we handle are hardwood (oak, ash, maple). The other 40% are softwood (Southern yellow pine, fir). Customers ask which is better.
Hardwood: heavier, more durable, more impact-resistant, more expensive. Best for heavy loads (over 2,000 lbs) or long routes. Lasts 30–50% more trips on average.
Softwood: lighter, cheaper, ships at lower freight cost, more flexible (which helps under shock loads but also means it gets damaged faster). Best for lighter loads and shorter routes.
We don't enforce a hardwood-vs-softwood preference unless you do. If your spec doesn't mention either, we ship whichever fits the grade and price target.
Plastic pallet format reference.
Plastic pallets come in three structural formats. Each has a use case.
| Format | Construction | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Nestable | Hollow base, stacks empty very compactly | Outbound shipping where empty return is a concern |
| Rackable | Reinforced bottom rails, supports racking | Warehouse storage in pallet racks |
| Stackable | Flat top and bottom, full load support | Stack-only storage, in-plant |
ISPM-15 — what you need to know.
ISPM-15 is the international phytosanitary standard for wood packaging used in cross-border shipping. Pallets must be heat-treated or methyl-bromide-fumigated and stamped with the appropriate mark before they can cross a national border.
Without an ISPM-15 stamp, your shipment can be held at customs, fumigated at your expense, or returned. The cost of fixing this mid-shipment is much higher than the marginal cost of sourcing ISPM-15 pallets up front.
We stock ISPM-15 wood pallets in a segregated section of the yard. If your shipment is going outside the US or Canada, mention it in your quote request and we'll quote ISPM-15 stock by default.
The stamp
The ISPM-15 stamp shows the country code, a unique facility identifier, and the treatment type (HT for heat-treated, MB for methyl bromide). Make sure your supplier's stamp is legible — a faded or partially-obscured stamp can be rejected.
Pallet repair service.
We do not advertise pallet repair heavily because the unit economics are tight and we're not trying to be the cheap option. But we run a repair bench for customer-owned pallets returned through reverse-logistics programs. Average ship-around for repair:
- Single board replacement: 2 business days from intake
- Stringer repair: 3–5 business days
- Full re-spec (deck swap + stringer fix): 5–7 business days
Frequently asked.
What's the average lifespan of a wood pallet?
For a B-grade hardwood pallet in moderate-use distribution, 8–15 trips before retirement. For softwood, 5–10. Heavy-load applications shorten both significantly.
Do you ship pallets without boxes?
Yes, standalone pallet orders are routine for us. Minimum order is around 50 wood / 25 plastic for distance shipping; lower for local pickup.
Can I get pallets to a non-standard size?
Yes — we source custom sizes on order. Lead time 1–3 weeks depending on complexity. Most common non-GMA we ship are 42×42, 48×48, and 36×36.
How do I tell if a pallet is ISPM-15 compliant?
Look for the stamp on at least two stringers. Stamp should show the country code (e.g., US-1234), the treatment code (HT or MB), and the IPPC logo.