Plastic Pallets Along I-81

I-81 from end to end

It runs the Appalachian valleys, so trucks trade grade for the shorter route between the Southeast and New York. It runs from Dandridge, Tennessee to the Canadian border at Wellesley Island, New York, by way of Roanoke, Hagerstown, Harrisburg, Scranton and Syracuse.

States that list I-81 among their main Interstates: Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. A pallet that rides I-81 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 39,746 warehousing jobs, led by Scranton (18,912) and Harrisburg (17,241). That is 2.1 percent of the US trade on one road.

What the table means

Scranton-Wilkes-Barre is the largest warehousing metro on I-81 in this table, with 18,912 jobs, 47.6 percent of the route total. Warehousing and storage is the largest trade listed along it, with 39,746 jobs (partial) in the route's metros. Together the metros hold 2.1 percent of US private warehousing jobs, about one in every 48.

Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee list I-81 among their main Interstates, so the route's metros sit inside those states' wider warehousing trade.

Trades that ship along it

In Interstate 81, warehousing and storage employs 39,746 (a partial count). Racks decide the order of questions: a pallet that sits on beams needs a racking load that matches the span, and a floor-stacked pallet needs a static load that matches the bottom of the stack. It tends to lean on rackable where the pallet lives on beams, stackable for block stacking, nestable for the empties that go back, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about the racking load, and the beam span it was rated on.

The empty return, mile by mile

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 66 route warehouse sites (jobs ÷ 600, rounded) in I-81 sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 33,000 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

2-way entry

A pallet that can be lifted from only two opposite sides.

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Static load

The weight a pallet holds while standing still on a flat floor, spread evenly across the deck. It is the highest of the three ratings.

Dock door

The opening where a trailer backs to a building so pallets can be loaded and unloaded.

QCEW

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a Bureau of Labor Statistics count of jobs and establishments taken from unemployment insurance records.

Closed deck

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

Commodity class

A fire-protection category for stored goods and their pallets, used to design sprinkler systems.

Open deck

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

4-way entry

A pallet that forks or a pallet jack can enter from all four sides.

Polypropylene

Another common pallet resin, lighter and stiffer than some others, with its own behaviour in the cold.

Interstate corridor

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

Dynamic load

The weight a pallet holds while it is moved by a forklift, pallet jack or conveyor. It is lower than static because motion adds shock.