Field notes · 36 articles
Written on the yard floor, not in a marketing meeting.
Longer pieces on specification, grading, cost, compliance and recovery. Everything here comes from problems customers actually brought us, and every number in them is one we would defend in a meeting.
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How to stack pallets outdoors so they are still worth something
Fifteen minutes of housekeeping routinely moves a load from 'we will remove this for free' to 'we will pay you for this'.
Rickenbacker, and where the pallets actually go
Three transport modes meet in the same few square miles, and each one wants a different pallet.
What the Columbus distribution boom did to pallets
Every square foot of distribution space built in Central Ohio is a square foot that generates used pallets nobody planned for.
The pallet year in Ohio
Pallet supply and pallet demand peak at different times of year, which is why prices move even when nothing else does.
Marking pallets so you can find them again
Wood is a hostile surface for anything you want to read later. Most pallet tracking schemes die on that fact.
Can you rack a used pallet? The honest answer
This is the question we are asked most often and the one where a supplier is most tempted to give a comfortable answer.
Why an AS/RS rejects a pallet a forklift would not notice
A driver looks at a pallet and decides. A shuttle measures it and refuses. Those are different standards and only one of them is written down.
Designing a pallet for automation
A human driver compensates for a pallet that is half an inch out. A conveyor does not, and it does not tell you either — it just stops.
The economics of dismantling
Two operators, the same pallet, the same saw. One recovers six usable boards and the other recovers three. That gap is the business.
Archive
Everything, by year
All 36 articles.
2026
9 articles
- The anatomy of a repair decisionYard notes
- How to stack pallets outdoors so they are still worth somethingYard notes
- Rickenbacker, and where the pallets actually goOhio & industry
- What the Columbus distribution boom did to palletsOhio & industry
- The pallet year in OhioOhio & industry
- Marking pallets so you can find them againSpecs & engineering
- Can you rack a used pallet? The honest answerSpecs & engineering
- Why an AS/RS rejects a pallet a forklift would not noticeSpecs & engineering
- Designing a pallet for automationSpecs & engineering
2025
12 articles
- The economics of dismantlingYard notes
- Pallet mulch: what it is, and what we will not sell it forSustainability
- What zero landfill actually requiresSustainability
- Reuse beats recycling, and the gap is bigger than you thinkSustainability
- The embodied carbon of a pallet, worked throughSustainability
- Reclaimed hardwood usually beats new pineSpecs & engineering
- Blue stain is not rot, and rejecting it costs you moneySpecs & engineering
- Mold on pallets: what it means and what it does notYard notes
- Your first export container: the packaging checklistCompliance
- Dunnage: the compliance blind spotCompliance
- Five ISPM-15 holds we have watched happenCompliance
- Pooling or buying outright: which one is actually cheaper?Buying & cost
2024
10 articles
- Why we count on the groundYard notes
- How to buy pallets when there are not enough of themBuying & cost
- What happens to your pallet price when lumber movesBuying & cost
- The two-way lane, and why it beats any price negotiationBuying & cost
- Audit your pallet spend in an afternoonBuying & cost
- The cheapest part of a pallet decides how long it lastsSpecs & engineering
- Deck coverage is not deck strengthSpecs & engineering
- Block or stringer: the honest decisionSpecs & engineering
- Why 48×40 won, and what that means for your budgetOhio & industry
- The fire engineer's view of your pallet stackCompliance
2023
5 articles
By subject
Six running threads
Yard notes
What actually happens between the inbound gate and the outbound stack.
7 articles
Specs & engineering
Dimensions, load paths, fasteners and the physics of a wooden platform.
11 articles
Buying & cost
Where pallet money leaks, and the levers that move more than unit price.
6 articles
Compliance
ISPM-15, export holds, fire code and the paperwork that stops a container.
4 articles
Sustainability
Reuse, carbon, diversion — with the arithmetic shown.
4 articles
Ohio & industry
The Columbus corridor, the wider market and what moves prices here.
4 articles