Pallets in San Jose, CA. Delivered by the truckload.

San Jose's industrial parks build chip tools, hardware prototypes and food, and the city counts manufacturing as nearly a fifth of its jobs. Freight moves by truck on US-101, I-880 and I-680, with Oakland as the nearest container seaport.

A century ago, Santa Clara County canned most of California's fruit and vegetables, and the last San Jose cannery closed in the late 1990s. Orchards gave way to semiconductor and hardware companies, and city data puts manufacturing at about 18 percent of San Jose's workforce. Much of that work sits in flex and R&D buildings in North San Jose, Milpitas and Santa Clara. South of the city, Gilroy goes by the nickname Garlic Capital of the World, and garlic from farms across the state is still peeled and packed there.

That makes the South Bay a different pallet market from the rest of the Bay Area. Many shippers here move high-value equipment in modest counts, and it rides on block or custom pallets sized to a crate. Broker reports say new industrial projects are courting advanced manufacturers and food producers, which adds 48x40 demand. Gilroy and Morgan Hill processors buy by the season. Exporters truck north to Oakland, so heat-treated stock matters too.