Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Des Moines

Des Moines, by road

I-80 and I-35 meet here, the middle of the country's corn and hog belt. The Des Moines area sits in Iowa, and the freight pattern follows the roads above.

Food manufacturing is where this area is most concentrated, at 1 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Dallas, Guthrie, Jasper, Madison, Polk and Warren county.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 34 establishments between them. Des Moines (50313) leads with 13, 38.2 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Polk County has 4,393 warehousing jobs, 100.0 percent of the 4,393 in the Des Moines area.
• Ankeny (50021) has 6 fewer warehousing establishments than Des Moines (50313), 7 against 13.
• Grimes (50111) has 7 fewer warehousing establishments than Des Moines (50313), 6 against 13.
• Des Moines (50317) has 9 fewer warehousing establishments than Des Moines (50313), 4 against 13.
• Bondurant (50035) has 9 fewer warehousing establishments than Des Moines (50313), 4 against 13.
• Polk County's 4,393 is 22.2 percent of all 19,824 warehousing jobs in Iowa.
• ZIP 50313 in Des Moines ranks number 1 of the five, with 13 warehousing establishments, 38.2 percent of their combined total and 3.25 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 50021 in Ankeny ranks number 2 of the five, with 7 warehousing establishments, 20.6 percent of their combined total and 1.75 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 50111 in Grimes ranks number 3 of the five, with 6 warehousing establishments, 17.6 percent of their combined total and 1.50 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 50317 in Des Moines ranks number 4 of the five, with 4 warehousing establishments, 11.8 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 50035 in Bondurant ranks number 5 of the five, with 4 warehousing establishments, 11.8 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Food manufacturing employs 4,620 in the area (partial), 1.05 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 4,393 in the area (partial), 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Iowa's meat and poultry processing employment, 33,386, is 7.60 times the Des Moines area's warehousing jobs.
• Iowa's food manufacturing employment, 60,161, is 13.69 times the Des Moines area's warehousing jobs.
• Iowa's refrigerated warehousing employment, 1,814, is 0.41 times the Des Moines area's warehousing jobs.
• Iowa's dairy product manufacturing employment, 3,922, is 0.89 times the Des Moines area's warehousing jobs.

Who ships pallets here

In Des Moines-West Des Moines, food manufacturing employs 4,620 (a partial count). The buyer here is usually a plant or sanitation manager, and the questions are cleaning, deck type and what paperwork comes with the model. It tends to lean on nestable or stackable that washes down, open or closed deck by product, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about resin and colourant documentation, since FDA does not approve pallet models.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 34 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Des Moines sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 40,800 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 Iowa that have a page here, Des Moines ranks number 1 by warehousing jobs.

Des Moines holds 22.2 percent of Iowa's 19,824 private warehousing jobs. See the Iowa page for the whole state.

Interstates serving the area: I-35 and I-80.

Words on this page

Establishment

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

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.

Recycled content

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

Commodity class

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

Slip sheet

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

Closed loop

A route where pallets return to the sender after delivery, so the empty trip is a standing cost.

Stretch wrap

Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.

Pallet pooling

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

Interstate corridor

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