Pallets in Lake County: Groveland, Clermont and the Turnpike

Three pages

The ZIP codes

34736, 34711, 34714, 34715, 34748, 34731 and 32757.

Truck country

Lake County is where a truckload buy or a steady removal is most likely. Cross-docks and bottling plants deal in loads of one size and grade, and in steady streams of cores and broken pallets that come back from stores. A request that says "both" is common.

Lake County in the Turnpike's order

Moving north on the Turnpike, Lake County begins after the SR 50 interchange at exit 272. Hancock Road, exit 278, is in Minneola. At mile 285 there is a northbound exit and southbound entrance for US 27, then the Leesburg electronic toll gantry at mile 288, a southbound exit and northbound entrance for US 27 at mile 289, and County Road 470 at exit 296. The Okahumpka service plaza at mile 299 sits just northwest of the Lake-Sumter line. Plans on file would widen the road from SR 50 to US 27.

Clermont

Clermont is the most populous city in Lake County, with 43,021 residents in 2020, about 22 miles west of Orlando. State Road 50 and US 27 are its main roads.

Small docks on arterial roads

The city developed as a place to live, with retail along its two arterials. The piles here are the pallets that arrive with store deliveries and building supplies. A back lot on a slope needs the stack raised on timbers; a lot at the bottom of a hill collects the runoff of the whole street. A description of the ground, level or sloped, is part of the request.

The Turnpike and SR 19

Florida's Turnpike enters Lake County north of Winter Garden, passes Minneola and the Clermont area, and leaves the county near the Okahumpka service plaza. US 27 and State Road 19 run beside it and carry the freight on to Groveland.

Along the road

The road

The Turnpike is unsigned State Road 91 and also carries the name Ronald Reagan Turnpike. The mainline from Miami Gardens to Wildwood is 264.666 miles and ends at an I-75 interchange about 20 miles south of Ocala. Its lanes were doubled between SR 528 and SR 50 between 2005 and 2012 at a cost of $380 million, and plans on file would widen it again from SR 50 north to US 27.

ZIP codes

34736, 34711 and 34714.

Sorting at scale

A building that handles hundreds of trailers a week will shed cores and broken pallets by the truckload. The fastest route to a clean dock is steady removal of those, with the Grade A and B pallets going back out.

Describing a location by exit

• Name the nearest Turnpike exit or the highway the truck uses to reach it.
• Say whether the trucks approach from the north or the south.
• Give the building type: cross-dock, front-load, or a single bay.

Plazas and tolling in Lake County

The Turnpike has eight service plazas about 45 miles apart. Okahumpka, at mile 299, is the last before the road ends at I-75 near Wildwood. Hancock Road, exit 278, is an electronic-toll exit and CR 470, exit 296, takes no cash. The last section to drop ticket tolling went cashless on 8 November 2021, so a driver without a transponder is billed by plate.