Pooled pallets are rented to shippers by a pooling company and marked with its name or colour so they can be traced and returned. This site doesn't take offers for them, and the Load Line leaves them out of a load's count.
What to do with them
Set them apart from your own pallets and contact the company named on them to arrange a return. If you're not sure whether a pallet is pooled, look for paint on the blocks or stringers and a company name burned or stamped on the side.
What Illinois law says, and doesn't
You may read that Illinois has a "Delivery Container Crime" law covering pallets. We checked the statute on ilga.gov on 2026-10-27:
- Article 16E of the Criminal Code, "Delivery Container Crime", is marked repealed, by Public Act 97-597, effective January 1, 2012.
- The current offense is delivery container theft, 720 ILCS 5/16-28. It covers using, selling, defacing or removing another person's delivery container marked with a name or mark, without the owner's consent, and carriers transporting marked containers without a bill of lading or invoice. It is a Class B misdemeanor.
- "Delivery container" is defined in Section 16-0.1 as a wire or plastic bakery basket used for bread or bakery products, a wire or plastic dairy case used for dairy products, and a 2- or 4-wheel dolly or cart used for bakery or dairy products. Pallets are not in that definition.
So that section is not a pallet law. Other Illinois statutes deal with marked containers and plastic bulk containers; we haven't reviewed them yet and say nothing about them here. Pooling companies also have their own terms with the shippers who rent their pallets. None of this is legal advice; if a pile of pooled pallets matters to your business, ask the pooler or a lawyer.