Pallets inside the District
Inside the District, pallets are a small-load problem. There is little warehouse land, so most pallets pile up behind stores and restaurants with no dock to load them from. The one real freight corridor, New York Avenue NE, has its own page.
The District’s pallet picture
Production, distribution and repair land is 5.2% of the District of Columbia’s land area. It is also about 4% of the Washington region’s 195.7 million square feet of PDR space. Most of what the District needs to buy and sell is stocked somewhere else, and DC Office of Planning expects very few new wholesale trade jobs to be located in the District because nearby jurisdictions meet most of the demand.
The employment numbers say the same thing. Transportation and warehousing employment in DC fell from 5,277 in 2012 to 3,828 in 2020, a drop of 27%. Wholesale trade fell from 4,492 to 3,431, a drop of 24%. The warehouses that used to take pallets back are not where the stores are.
What that does to pallets
A store or restaurant receives goods on pallets and has no room to hold them. The pallets go in an alley, a loading zone or a back lot, where they pile up until someone moves them. A dock that ships out can reload them onto a trailer. A rowhouse block cannot. That is the kind of job these pages are about: a few stacks to a few dozen pallets on a street that limits what can reach them.
- Small piles behind retail and restaurants. Send the count and the size. The loading zone or alley is the fact that shapes a pickup.
- Construction yards. Heavier, more mixed and more broken. Say what is sound.
- New York Avenue NE. Docks, utility yards and warehouses. See the corridor page.
ZIP codes in the District
The District has 57 ZIP codes in the market data we use, from 20001 to 20591, including the ones for federal buildings and agencies. Most customers fall in a few of them. Give us the ZIP the pallets sit in, not your mailing address, because the ZIP that matters is where the pallets sit.
Alleys and loading zones
Reading the street matters as much as the count. The alley guide covers what we ask about access, timing and storage, and the pickup page covers how a collection runs.
What the land-use figures say
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PDR land as a share of the District | 5.2% | DC Office of Planning |
| Share of the region’s PDR space | About 4% of 195.7 million sq ft | DC Office of Planning |
| Government and utility PDR acreage | 1,124 acres, 62% | DC Office of Planning |
| Private PDR acreage | 701 acres | DC Office of Planning |
| Construction on private PDR land | 266 acres | DC Office of Planning |
| Wholesale trade employment, 2012 to 2020 | 4,492 to 3,431, down 24% | DC Office of Planning |
| Transportation and warehousing employment, 2012 to 2020 | 5,277 to 3,828, down 27% | DC Office of Planning |
Who in the District has pallets
- Restaurants and bars receive produce, drinks and dry goods and shed a few pallets a week.
- Shops and offices get stock and furniture on pallets and have nowhere to store the empties.
- Construction sites and yards are the largest private PDR land user, and their pallets are heavy and mixed.
- Government and utility sites hold most of the PDR land and have their own rules for what they release.
- Hotels and institutions receive linen and food supplies on a schedule.
Why the District stacks nothing
Government and utility users hold 1,124 acres of DC land zoned for production, distribution and repair, which is 62 percent of it. Private business has 701 acres, and construction alone uses 266 of them. That leaves little room for any private dock to store pallets, so a back room or alley fills up fast.
What this means for a pickup
- Windows are short, because the loading zone is shared with deliveries.
- A smaller truck often fits where a full trailer cannot turn.
- A named contact and an address with the loading side marked save a failed trip.
- Piles in alleys behind rowhouse storefronts need the owner’s permission on the day.
The corridors that matter
Most of the District’s production, distribution and repair land is in Ward 5, near railroad facilities, the Red Line corridor and New York Avenue NE. That avenue runs three miles from Florida Avenue to South Dakota Avenue and holds warehousing, utility and service jobs. A pile in that corridor is more likely to sit at a dock; a pile elsewhere in the city is more likely to sit in an alley.
In this section
ZIP codes
20019 20011 20032 20002 20020 20016 20015 20007 20008 20018 20003 20017 20024 20012 20001 20009 20010 20037 20373 20005 20006 20317 20036 20004 20064 20057 20565 20319 20422 20560 20059 20230 20566 20052 20515 20540 20388 20520 20250 20260 20245 20220 20530 20535 20542 20240 20510 20408 20415 20418 20045 20591 20551 20431 20427 20204 20390
Send the count
Questions
- Do you collect pallets from alleys in DC?
- Send the count, the street and a ZIP, and say how the loading zone works and when it is free. Nothing is promised before the request is read.
- Why is there so little warehouse space in DC?
- Production, distribution and repair land is 5.2% of the District. Most wholesale supply comes from facilities in nearby jurisdictions.
- How many ZIP codes does the District have?
- 57 in the market data, including those for federal buildings and agencies.
- Do you collect from government buildings?
- Ask for a pickup only if the site is free to release the pallets; we ask about that first.