Where the freight lands
Three interstates meet in this county. I-15 runs the length of the Wasatch Front, I-80 crosses Salt Lake City east to west, and I-215 circles the inner valley. South Salt Lake sits where I-15, I-80 and SR-201 knot together at the Spaghetti Bowl, which is why wholesalers settled there. West of that, the west side of Salt Lake City and West Valley City take trucks off I-80 and Bangerter Highway.
The pallets follow the freight. A dock that receives forty-foot containers from the rail yards ends up with import pallets of mixed sizes; a parcel hub ends up with broken 48 x 40 stringers; a wholesale warehouse ends up with clean Grade A and B stock it wants to reuse.
ZIP codes you may need
Know the ZIP your dock sits in. Salt Lake City uses 84101 to 84106, 84108, 84109, 84111, 84113 and 84116; West Valley City uses 84119, 84120 and 84128; South Salt Lake uses 84106, 84115 and 84119; West Jordan uses 84081, 84084 and 84088.
Sizes and grades that show up here
- 48 x 40 stringer pallets, Grade A and Grade B, are the everyday ask from warehouses and 3PLs.
- Block pallets arrive with import and retail freight and are worth listing separately in a request.
- Heat-treated stock matters for anything that leaves the country by container from the intermodal terminals.
- Mixed loads are common wherever a dock collects pallets for weeks before anyone looks at them.
Winter and the yard
Salt Lake City averages about 60 inches of snow a season, falling roughly November 6 to April 18. A stack left outside along the county's west side collects that snowmelt, so a buyer who needs dry stock should say so; see keeping yard pallets dry.
What to put in a request
Name the kind of dock, the pallet size, a rough count, and how access works for a truck: a loading dock, a back lot, a gate code. Say if the pile is a one-off or weekly. That is enough to start; the form asks for the rest.
Keeping the numbers straight
Salt Lake County holds the Northwest Quadrant, the airport and the west-side warehouse districts. A request from here should name the city, because Salt Lake City, West Valley City, West Jordan and South Salt Lake each have a different mix of buildings.
West Valley City
West Valley City is an inner suburb on the northwest side of the Salt Lake Valley, and its docks lean toward parcels, trucking and fulfillment. Most pallet requests from the city involve a steady weekly 48 x 40 count in ZIP 84119, 84120 or 84128.
- ZIPs: 84119, 84120, 84128
- Industries: Parcel, trucking, composites, supplements, coffee
- Rail transit: TRAX Green Line
Roads that matter to a truck
The Jordan River marks the eastern edge and the Oquirrh Mountains the west. Bangerter Highway and the Mountain View Corridor serve the city, along with I-215, 5600 West, 3500 South and 3100 South. Light industrial lies north of Parkway Boulevard, and Westlake Business Park sits north of 3100 South.
Employers
The city's 2017 financial report counted UPS at 1,320 employees, Swift Transportation at 1,118 and Hexcel at 953. The city also names Backcountry.com, Black Rifle Coffee Company, C.R. England and USANA Health Sciences as companies based there. They show the kind of freight in the area.
Parcel and trucking operations churn through pallets: loads arrive on them, get broken down, and the wood is left to pile up. Composite and supplement makers ship on stock matched to the product. A coffee roaster tends to want clean, dry boards.
Three ZIPs, three ends of town
- 84119 covers the eastern neighbourhoods around Redwood and Chesterfield.
- 84120 is the central belt, with Lakepark and Hunter.
- 84128 covers the western neighbourhoods toward the mountains.
Two usual requests
A dock with a pile wants it cleared and says how many, how high and how a truck could reach it. A buyer with an outbound line wants the same size and grade every week. Both can use truckload orders or clearing.
Grade matters in a fulfillment aisle. A Grade B pallet with one replaced deck board runs fine on a rack, while a pallet with a cracked stringer is better sent to recycling than reused.
Sources