Pallets in Pontiac
Pontiac is the Oakland County seat, with a General Motors past and a large Grand Trunk Western classification yard serving the local auto industry.
What is here
- County seat
- Oakland County
- Rail
- Grand Trunk Western classification yard
- History
- General Motors
- ZIPs
- 48340, 48341, 48342
Pontiac's industrial buildings are older than those in the newer suburbs around it, and many have changed hands and uses. The rail yard connects local industry to the national network, and rail freight is a source of unusual pallets: loads that were packed far away and arrive on whatever the sender used.
Older buildings, odd piles
- Pallets left behind by tenants who moved out.
- Piles in yards that grew over years with no sorting.
- Inbound rail freight on a mix of sizes and builds.
That is the territory of mixed and broken piles: a one-off clearance, with a count and photos, followed by a regular pickup if the pile keeps coming.
Close to Auburn Hills
A truck on I-75 can reach Auburn Hills in minutes, so a Pontiac pickup rarely runs alone. Say if you can be flexible on the day; it helps pair routes.
Questions about older sites
The yard has pallets from before we took the lease. Are they ours?
Check the lease. A landlord may claim what a tenant leaves, and a buyer will want to know who can sign off.
Rail freight arrives on foreign pallets. Can they be resold?
If they bear a legible mark and are sound, many can. Photograph the stamp.
The pile has been out in winter. Is it ruined?
Not necessarily. Sort it: sound boards stay, soft ones go to cores.
A county seat
Pontiac has government and court buildings alongside its industry. Those produce small, clean piles from deliveries, which are quick to clear.
The rail yard
A rail classification yard sorts cars into trains, and the freight on those cars includes palletized goods bound for local industry. Pallets that arrive on rail are often packed far away and may be of any size. Unloading docks near the yard see them in numbers, and the pallets that stay behind are a market of their own.
If you operate a transload dock, describe how many pallets you receive in a week, how many leave with the goods and how many are left. The left-behind count is what a buyer can use.
Government and industry
As the county seat, Pontiac has courts, county offices and a hospital district, alongside its rail yard and older factories. The government buildings produce the cleanest pallets, from office and medical supply deliveries.
Reuse of old plants
Former factory buildings now house small tenants, storage firms and workshops. Their stock of leftover pallets may be decades old; sort out any that are brittle or rotted before photographing the pile.
Rail yard and freeways
Grand Trunk Western, owned by Canadian National, runs a large classification yard in Pontiac that has served the local auto industry. I-75 and Business I-75 pass through, with US 24 ending just north of the city and M-59 (Huron Street) running east and west.