Plastic Pallets Along I-70

I-70 from end to end

It is the main east-west route through the Midwest and the Great Plains. It runs from central Utah to Baltimore, Maryland, by way of Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus.

States that list I-70 among their main Interstates: Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio and Utah. A pallet that rides I-70 loaded rides it back empty, and the length of that haul is what a nestable's short stack pays for.

Metros on the route

Together the route's metros hold 135,057 warehousing jobs, led by Indianapolis (41,067) and Columbus (34,200). That is 7.1 percent of the US trade on one road.

What the table means

Kansas City is the largest warehousing metro on I-70 in this table, with 20,676 jobs, 15.3 percent of the route total. Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing is the largest trade listed along it, with 27,735 jobs (partial) in the route's metros. Together the metros hold 7.1 percent of US private warehousing jobs, about one in every 14.

Colorado, Indiana, Kansas and Maryland list I-70 among their main Interstates, so the route's metros sit inside those states' wider warehousing trade.

Trades that ship along it

In Interstate 70, pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employs 27,735 (a partial count). Pharma plants care about clean surfaces and a paper trail. A used 48 x 40 model one maker lists is described as pharma and food safe but not approved for direct food contact, which is the kind of careful wording to expect. It tends to lean on clean, washable stackable or nestable with a paperwork trail, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about resin and colourant documents and the maker's cleaning guidance.

The empty return, mile by mile

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 225 route warehouse sites (jobs ÷ 600, rounded) in I-70 sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 180,000 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Words on this page

Cube utilisation

How well loaded freight fills the volume of a trailer or container. Taller or wider-than-floor pallets waste cube.

Establishment

A single physical location where a business operates, such as one warehouse. A company with ten warehouses has ten establishments.

Closed deck

A solid deck that keeps small items and torn bags from falling through and wipes clean on top.

Drayage

The short haul of a container between a port or rail ramp and a warehouse.

Creep

Slow, permanent bending of plastic under a steady load. A pallet can hold a load for an hour and bow under it after a month.

Euro pallet

A 1200 by 800 millimetre pallet, about 48 by 31.5 inches, widely used in Europe.

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Recycled content

The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.

Open deck

A deck with slots or a grid, which drains water, sheds dust and weighs less than a solid one.

Gross cubic feet

The total volume of a refrigerated warehouse. Usable space is smaller once aisles and equipment are subtracted.

One-way pallet

A light pallet built to carry cargo to a destination and stay there, often used in export.

Interstate corridor

A freight route named for its highway, together with the metros along it.