Becoming a pallet flipper can be a great self-employment idea to create a first (or most important) or additional/helping income. The pallet collector makes money by picking up unwanted pallets and selling them to pallet recycling businesses or pallet end users.
Find suppliers in your community
Like any successful small business operation, being a scrap pallet collector serves a need in the community. Small businesses pile up pallets that they need to remove from their location. Also, other companies gather odd-sized or damaged pallets that they need to have removed because they are not good for reuse. By offering a professional service, you can help serve this non-(related to a plan to reach a goal) but none the less extremely important need of your customers to remove unwanted pallets and skids.
Starting Up Your Business
Getting going in business can be as simple as finding free pallets and selling them, but if you are looking to start a serious business/project, then you should go about your business in the same way/in that way.
What is needed needed?
As in many types of creative (with business) recycling businesses, a truck and or utility trailer is extremely important. Also, (things carried by a ship, etc.) straps are needed/demanded to make sure that you don`t lose pallets traveling. Pallets falling from vehicles have been known to cause serious motor vehicle (sudden unplanned bad events/crashes), including deaths. So, the importance of properly securing your load cannot be put way too much focus on. At the same time, your ability to (make as big as possible) the number of pallets that you can safely drag/carry will save you travel time and reduce your fuel expense.
Other useful equipment could include a manual pallet jack to move around stacks of empty pallets, leather gloves, containers for scrap pallet wood that falls off in the course of handling and maybe light pallet repair equipment such as pry bars and a nailing tool.
Where to Find Free or Cheap Pallets
Scrap pallets, commonly known as pallet “cores” in the recycling business, can be discovered in a great variety of places where pallets are emptied, or where they are disposed. Some of these locations include:
- Craigslist.org or other online or print ads offering free pallet removal
- Retail outlets
- Small businesses
- Construction places/locations
- Distribution centers
- Institutions
- Hotels and restaurants
- Ports
- Cruise ship terminals
- Manufacturing or processing plants
- Trucking terminals
- Air freight forwarders
Where to Sell Your Pallets
An easy place to start is to check with pallet recycling businesses in your area to see which ones will buy pallets from collectors. Usually, they will require that you unload and sort the pallets you bring in, as well as providing picture identification. In some legal controls, cash payment is no longer allowed, and so you will be needed/demanded to submit added/more information to enable payment by check or direct deposit. There are other opportunities of course. Where the pallets you pick up are easily reusable, or reusable with light repair, you may develop accounts with pallet users. Such businesses will provide greater money/money income than selling to the pallet recycler, which acts as a (person who gets between two arguing parties to help them agree). Many Pallet companies with also purchase pallets, although they will pay significaly less than most businesses. Some of the top pallet buying companies are Used Pallet Recycling, Kamps Pallets, 48 Forty Solutions, Wiley Pallet, and Verde Trader.
What to Do With Broken or Odd Sized Pallets
Some pallets will have no resale value and will be good only for wood recycling operations. Although many pallet companies will provide a free recycling service. The good news is that there will be far less competition for such pallets and customers will appreciate your services all the more. Be sure to charge enough to cover your cost of taking them to the wood recycler. A final tip to think about is that those odd-sized pallets are valuable to their originator. (ask lots of questions about/try to find the truth about) whether that shipper is interested in buying them back. If so, it might be money-making to pile up and return such pallets to that supplier for reuse. It comes down to pallet volume and distance. While pallet combining is usually connected with major companies such as CHEP, it is possible for small business starters to create mini-combining services at a local level.
0 Comments