Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Charlotte

Charlotte, by road

I-77 and I-85 meet here, and the metro spills across the state line into South Carolina. The Charlotte area sits in North Carolina, and the freight pattern follows the roads above.

Warehousing and storage is where this area is most concentrated, at 1.1 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Anson, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln and Mecklenburg... counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 94 establishments between them. Charlotte (28273) leads with 33, 35.1 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Mecklenburg County has 12,290 warehousing jobs, 66.7 percent of the 18,437 in the Charlotte area.
• York County has 3,009 warehousing jobs, 16.3 percent of the 18,437 in the Charlotte area, 9,281 fewer than Mecklenburg.
• Rowan County has 1,800 warehousing jobs, 9.8 percent of the 18,437 in the Charlotte area, 10,490 fewer than Mecklenburg.
• Charlotte (28269) has 9 fewer warehousing establishments than Charlotte (28273), 24 against 33.
• Rock Hill (29730) has 18 fewer warehousing establishments than Charlotte (28273), 15 against 33.
• Charlotte (28208) has 21 fewer warehousing establishments than Charlotte (28273), 12 against 33.
• Concord (28027) has 23 fewer warehousing establishments than Charlotte (28273), 10 against 33.
• Mecklenburg County's 12,290 is 22.5 percent of all 54,551 warehousing jobs in North Carolina.
• York County's 3,009 is 5.5 percent of all 54,551 warehousing jobs in North Carolina.
• Rowan County's 1,800 is 3.3 percent of all 54,551 warehousing jobs in North Carolina.
• ZIP 28273 in Charlotte ranks number 1 of the five, with 33 warehousing establishments, 35.1 percent of their combined total and 3.30 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 28269 in Charlotte ranks number 2 of the five, with 24 warehousing establishments, 25.5 percent of their combined total and 2.40 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 29730 in Rock Hill ranks number 3 of the five, with 15 warehousing establishments, 16.0 percent of their combined total and 1.50 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 28208 in Charlotte ranks number 4 of the five, with 12 warehousing establishments, 12.8 percent of their combined total and 1.20 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 28027 in Concord ranks number 5 of the five, with 10 warehousing establishments, 10.6 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Warehousing and storage employs 18,437 in the area (partial), 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Chemical manufacturing employs 8,066 in the area (partial), 0.44 for every warehousing job.
• North Carolina's pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employment, 26,998, is 1.46 times the Charlotte area's warehousing jobs.
• North Carolina's meat and poultry processing employment, 35,715, is 1.94 times the Charlotte area's warehousing jobs.
• North Carolina's chemical manufacturing employment, 47,758, is 2.59 times the Charlotte area's warehousing jobs.
• North Carolina's plastics product manufacturing employment, 27,700, is 1.50 times the Charlotte area's warehousing jobs.

Who ships pallets here

In Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, warehousing and storage employs 18,437 (a partial count). Most of the demand is for general pallets in the common footprint, with the choice split between rack service and block stacking. 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

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 94 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Charlotte sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 112,800 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

In its state

Among the 1 metros of North Carolina that have a page here, Charlotte ranks number 1 by warehousing jobs.

Charlotte holds 33.8 percent of North Carolina's 54,551 private warehousing jobs. See the North Carolina page for the whole state.

Interstates serving the area: I-85.

Words on this page

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Open deck

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

Location quotient

A place's share of employment in a trade divided by the national share. Above 1 means the trade is more concentrated there than average.

Dock door

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

3PL

A third-party logistics company that stores and ships goods for other businesses.

Pallet jack

A hand or powered truck with two forks, used to move a pallet short distances.

Slip sheet

A thin sheet of plastic or fibreboard used under a load in place of a pallet, handled by a push-pull attachment.

ZIP Code Business Patterns

A Census Bureau series that counts establishments by ZIP code and industry.

Pallet pooling

A rental model where a company owns the pallets and moves them between customers, instead of each customer buying its own.