We hire graders, repair technicians, Class A drivers, route coordinators, yard operators and studio woodworkers at 10400 Evendale Dr, Cincinnati, OH 45241. Drivers are home daily. Everything here runs in writing, including hiring — apply with the form below or email info@palletsrecycle.com and a person reads it within one business day. We do not use an applicant tracking system, which means no black hole and no automated rejection.
Put the role you want in Product Type, put 1 in Quantity, and tell us about yourself in the message. It is an unusual application form and we read every one of them.
The most important job in the building. You apply posted rejection criteria to several hundred pallets a shift and decide which of five outcomes each one takes. It is physical, it is repetitive, and it requires judgement that takes about six weeks to build.
Bench work: deck board replacement, stringer plugs, companion stringers and jig rebuilds with pneumatic nailers. Most of our senior technicians started as graders and moved across.
Regional routes across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana on company dry vans and flatbeds. You count with the customer, sign the tally, and represent the company at every dock you visit — which matters more here than the driving does.
Builds next week every Thursday afternoon. Standing accounts first, then on-call requests in order received, then surge. Every load gets an answer to "what comes back?" before it is assigned.
The shop at the back: de-nailing, metal detection, kiln loading, planing, panel layup and finishing. Commercial fixtures, wall panels, planters and commissioned pieces from reclaimed hardwood.
Forklift and loader work: trailer loading, stack management, feeding the dismantling line and the grinder, keeping the yard navigable in February. Certification provided if you do not have it.
This is a yard. It is loud, it is dusty, it is cold in January and hot in July, and the wood does not care how your morning went.
Graders handle several hundred pallets a shift. Nobody should take one of these jobs expecting otherwise, and we would rather say it here than in week two.
Most of our senior people started on the grading line. Repair, jig setup, kiln operation and coordination are all learned here, on the clock.
Regional routes only. We have turned down freight that would have required overnight runs, more than once.
No phone line. That applies internally too — shift notes, criteria changes, incident reports. It takes getting used to and it ends a lot of arguments.
Write anyway. We have created roles for people who turned up with a skill we did not know we needed — including the person who now runs the studio.
No applicant tracking system, which means no black hole and no automated rejection. It also means we are slower than a company with software, and we would rather be.
The form on this page, or an email. Tell us the role, tell us about yourself. A CV is welcome and is not required.
Within one business day. Every application, including the ones that are clearly not a fit — those get a reply too.
We run on writing, so the first exchange is by email. It is a genuine part of the assessment for office roles.
Before any offer. It is loud, dusty, cold in January and hot in July, and you should find that out before week two rather than after.
For floor roles. Paid. You watch a grader or a bench for half a day and decide whether you want it.
With a reason. Nobody is left wondering.
| Period | What you are doing | What is being watched |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Shadowing. Learning the posted criteria and the five outcome streams. | Nothing. You are learning vocabulary. |
| Weeks 2–3 | Grading alongside somebody, at your own pace. | Accuracy, not speed. Speed comes later or not at all. |
| Weeks 4–6 | Grading independently, sampled daily. | Consistency between the start and end of a shift. |
| Weeks 7–9 | Full line speed building. Learning the hand-and-eye overlap. | Whether accuracy holds as pace increases. |
| Weeks 10–12 | Independent, sampled weekly. | Whether criteria hold on a month-end Friday, not just a quiet Tuesday. |
| Beyond | Cross-training onto the repair bench, jigs or the kiln if you want it. | Most of our senior people came off the grading line. |
The six-week figure people quote for learning to grade is about the judgement, not the criteria. The criteria take an afternoon. What takes six weeks is the hand running across the deck for shiners while the eyes are on the stringer — two checks at once, which is most of the ramp.