Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Hagerstown

Hagerstown, by road

I-70 and I-81 cross here, and the area runs across the line into the West Virginia Eastern Panhandle. Hagerstown is counted here as the metropolitan area in Maryland that the Census Bureau delineates, and its pallet traffic is set by that geography.

Plastics product manufacturing is where this area is most concentrated, at 4.3 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Washington, Berkeley and Morgan county.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 14 establishments between them. Hagerstown (21740) leads with 14, 100.0 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Washington County has 1,842 warehousing jobs, 100.0 percent of the 1,842 in the Hagerstown area.
• Washington County's 1,842 is 6.1 percent of all 29,966 warehousing jobs in Maryland.
• ZIP 21740 in Hagerstown ranks number 1 of the five, with 14 warehousing establishments, 100.0 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 1,661 in the area, 0.90 for every warehousing job.
• Chemical manufacturing employs 2,378 in the area (partial), 1.29 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 1,842 in the area (partial), 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Maryland's pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employment, 9,019, is 4.90 times the Hagerstown area's warehousing jobs.
• Maryland's warehousing and storage employment, 29,966, is 16.27 times the Hagerstown area's warehousing jobs.
• Baltimore, also in Maryland, has 6,377 warehousing jobs, 3.46 times Hagerstown's.

Who ships pallets here

In Hagerstown-Martinsburg, plastics product manufacturing employs 1,661. These buyers compare resin and deck design directly, and ask for the nest figure so they can price the empty return. It tends to lean on nestable or stackable in the plant's own footprint, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about static load and whether the model is built for conveyors or automation.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 14 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Hagerstown sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 11,200 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 2 metros of Maryland that have a page here, Hagerstown ranks number 2 by warehousing jobs.

Hagerstown holds 6.1 percent of Maryland's 29,966 private warehousing jobs. See the Maryland page for the whole state.

Other metros in Maryland with their own page: Baltimore.

Interstates serving the area: I-81.

Words on this page

Dunnage

Loose material used to support or secure cargo inside a trailer or container.

Beam span

The open gap between two rack beams. The longer the span, the lower the load the pallet can carry across it.

Metropolitan area

A group of counties around an urban core, as the Census Bureau delineates it. Metro pages here follow those lines.

3PL

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

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.

ZIP Code Business Patterns

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

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Cruciform base

A base shaped like a plus sign under the pallet, which gives a stable footprint and slides well on conveyors.

Drayage

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