Pallets bought, sold and cleared all around Narragansett Bay

Pick your shore. We'll show you what the docks around it ship on.

Your shore

Five shores, each with its own mix of docks. Choose one for the towns, what ships there and the sizes it leans on.

Head of the bay

The Providence River runs into the top of the bay here, and ProvPort sits on it: more than 2 million tons of cargo and 400-plus vessel arrivals in 2024, with salt, cement, scrap metal and equipment among its bulk and breakbulk lines.

Port and bulk cargo moves on 48 x 40 and on odd skids that arrive with machinery.
Food distribution docks around the city lean on Grade A and clean Grade B stock.
Jewelry and metals shops ship small, heavy loads that want sound four-way pallets.

Start with Providence and 48 x 40 pallets.

Providence East Providence

Buy on this shore Sell or clear here

Blackstone Valley

The Blackstone River drove the mills of Pawtucket, Central Falls, Lincoln, Cumberland and Woonsocket, and the brick is still there. The loading docks behind it are small, many of them cramped, and they fill with whatever the last delivery left.

Plastics and polymer compounding in Pawtucket, with packaging and food manufacturing beside it.
Mill-building tenants send a few dozen pallets at a time, often mixed in size and grade.
Woonsocket carries a pharmacy headquarters and manufacturing, so grocery-size 48 x 40 dominates.

Start with Pawtucket, Woonsocket and cores and mixed loads.

Pawtucket Woonsocket Central Falls Lincoln Cumberland

Buy on this shore Sell or clear here

West Bay and Quonset

Cranston, Johnston and Warwick line the west side of the bay, and Quonset Point sits at its mouth. This is the metro's distribution and fulfillment shore, with a submarine yard and food plants at Quonset.

Johnston holds a 3.8 million square foot Amazon robotics fulfillment building that opened in 2025.
Quonset Business Park lists more than 15,000 jobs at over 260 companies, among them seafood and nutrition makers.
Warwick's airport and I-95 corridor feed retail and distribution docks.

Start with Warwick, Johnston and North Kingstown.

Warwick Cranston Johnston North Kingstown West Warwick

Buy on this shore Sell or clear here

East Bay

East of the bay lie Barrington, Warren, Bristol and Tiverton, with Aquidneck Island and Newport at the water's edge. The towns are small, and the shipping is boats and the parts that go into them.

Marine manufacturing and boatbuilding in Bristol and Warren ship in modest, irregular loads.
Small manufacturers use whatever size the supplier's skid arrived on.
Loads here travel through the neighbouring shores to reach a highway.

Start with Bristol and Warren.

Bristol Warren

Buy on this shore Sell or clear here

South Coast

Over the state line in Bristol County, Massachusetts, the South Coast runs from Fall River to New Bedford, with Taunton and Mansfield inland. Seafood, cold storage, fulfillment and distribution parks make this the heaviest pallet shore.

New Bedford is a working fishing port, with seafood processors and cold storage around the harbour.
Fall River holds fulfillment and cold-chain buildings off Route 24 and I-195.
Taunton's Myles Standish Industrial Park covers about 1,029 acres and about 100 companies.

Start with New Bedford, Fall River and Bristol County, MA.

Fall River New Bedford Taunton Mansfield Attleboro

Buy on this shore Sell or clear here

Three ways a load moves

Buy

Graded used stock, new builds, custom sizes and heat-treated pallets for docks that need them. Name the size, the grade and the count.

Open the buy desk

Sell

Sound 48 x 40s and other good stock are worth selling; pooled rental pallets are not yours to sell. Say what you have and where it sits.

Open the sell desk

Clear

Broken stacks, cores and mixed piles behind the building. Count them, name the town and say how often the pile comes back.

Open the clear desk

Read a pallet

Point at a part of the drawing, or read the list. Every buyer on the bay uses these words.

Stringer: The long timbers under the deck, three on a standard pallet. Forks enter between them. A cracked stringer is repaired with a companion stringer, a second timber fastened beside it, which marks the pallet as Grade B.
Deck board: The boards you stack on. A broken one is replaced or plugged; a pallet that needs no repair at all is Grade A.
Plug: A short board, 6 to 24 inches, nailed beside a split one. A plug is the common Grade B repair.
Fork pocket: The opening between stringers. A stringer pallet takes forks from two ends; a block pallet and a notched four-way pallet take them from all four sides.
ISPM 15 stamp: Burned or stamped into wood meant to cross a border: the IPPC mark, a country code, a producer number and a treatment code. HT means heat treated. Reading the stamp.

Sizes the bay ships on

Six footprints cover most of what moves here. Length is the stringer side.

Footprint, inches, and who uses it
Size	Metric	Where it shows up
48 x 40	1,219 x 1,016 mm	The GMA pallet: grocery, retail and most distribution docks. Page
42 x 42	1,067 x 1,067 mm	Beverage and paint loads. Page
48 x 48	1,219 x 1,219 mm	Drums and totes from the chemical sector. Page
48 x 45	1,219 x 1,143 mm	Automotive parts, alongside 48 x 40. Page
48 x 42	1,219 x 1,067 mm	Chemical and beverage loads. Page
800 x 1200 mm	800 x 1,200 mm	The Euro pallet, on import loads. Page

Wet rooms, cold rooms, export crates

Wet and cold: seafood rooms

Wood under about 20% moisture content will not support mould, so dryness matters more than looks in a seafood room. Stored stacks want air moving through them.

Read the guide

Clean: food and nutrition lines

A food or nutrition plant reads a pallet for splinters, odour, stains and dryness first, and grade second. Quonset alone lists nutrition and seafood makers.

Read the guide

Leaving the country: export crates

A pallet bound overseas needs the ISPM 15 treatment and stamp, which for heat treatment means the core of the wood held at 56 °C for 30 minutes.

Read the guide

Industries around the bay

Seafood processingNew Bedford and the South Coast Food and nutritionQuonset, Pawtucket, Providence Defense and marineQuonset Point, Bristol and Warren Distribution and fulfillmentJohnston, Warwick, Fall River, Taunton, Mansfield Plastics and chemicalsPawtucket and the Blackstone Valley

What a good request includes

Pick a sideBuying, selling or clearing. The three desks use different words: a buyer names a grade, a seller names a count, a clearing request names a pile.
Name the loadSize first, as in 48 x 40, then grade, then how many. If the load is mixed, say so; a mixed load is a normal thing to have.
Say where it isThe town, and whether the dock is wet, cold or food-clean. A load leaving the country needs the ISPM 15 stamp.
Say how oftenOnce, weekly or monthly. A pile that comes back every two weeks is a different problem from one pile.

Send one request

Buy, sell or clear: one form for all three.

Prefer email? Write to info@providenceusedpallets.com.

Questions from the docks

Who buys used pallets in Rhode Island?

Pallet recyclers, remanufacturers and distribution docks buy sound used stock, but not every pallet is worth selling; see what sells and what does not.

How do I get rid of pallets in Providence?

Rhode Island Resource Recovery tells residents to ask their city or town how to dispose of wood pallets. For a business pile, start at the clear desk and the guide on getting rid of pallets.

What is the difference between a Grade A and a Grade B pallet?

Grade A has no repairs and needs none. Grade B has been repaired with plugs, plates or replaced boards and carries the same load. All the grades.

Do pallets need to be heat treated to ship overseas?

Wood packaging in international trade falls under ISPM 15, which asks for treatment and a stamp. Reading the stamp.

Can I sell CHEP or other blue pallets?

No. A painted pooled pallet belongs to the pooling company, not to the dock holding it. Pooled pallets.

Do you serve Fall River and New Bedford as well as Rhode Island?

Yes. Bristol County, Massachusetts is on the chart with Rhode Island: Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton are all covered.

All the questions · Guides