Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Harrisburg

Harrisburg, by road

I-81, I-83 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike meet here, around the Carlisle warehouse cluster. The Harrisburg area sits in Pennsylvania, and the freight pattern follows the roads above.

Warehousing and storage is where this area is most concentrated, at 4.3 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 73 establishments between them. Mechanicsburg (17050) leads with 20, 27.4 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Cumberland County has 12,506 warehousing jobs, 72.5 percent of the 17,241 in the Harrisburg area.
• Dauphin County has 4,735 warehousing jobs, 27.5 percent of the 17,241 in the Harrisburg area, 7,771 fewer than Cumberland.
• Carlisle (17013) has 3 fewer warehousing establishments than Mechanicsburg (17050), 17 against 20.
• Mechanicsburg (17055) has 7 fewer warehousing establishments than Mechanicsburg (17050), 13 against 20.
• Carlisle (17015) has 7 fewer warehousing establishments than Mechanicsburg (17050), 13 against 20.
• Camp Hill (17011) has 10 fewer warehousing establishments than Mechanicsburg (17050), 10 against 20.
• Cumberland County's 12,506 is 10.1 percent of all 123,481 warehousing jobs in Pennsylvania.
• Dauphin County's 4,735 is 3.8 percent of all 123,481 warehousing jobs in Pennsylvania.
• ZIP 17050 in Mechanicsburg ranks number 1 of the five, with 20 warehousing establishments, 27.4 percent of their combined total and 2.00 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 17013 in Carlisle ranks number 2 of the five, with 17 warehousing establishments, 23.3 percent of their combined total and 1.70 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 17055 in Mechanicsburg ranks number 3 of the five, with 13 warehousing establishments, 17.8 percent of their combined total and 1.30 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 17015 in Carlisle ranks number 4 of the five, with 13 warehousing establishments, 17.8 percent of their combined total and 1.30 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 17011 in Camp Hill ranks number 5 of the five, with 10 warehousing establishments, 13.7 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Warehousing and storage employs 17,241 in the area, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 1,302 in the area (partial), 0.08 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 5,802 in the area, 0.34 for every warehousing job.
• Grocery and related product wholesale employs 2,331 in the area, 0.14 for every warehousing job.
• Pennsylvania's warehousing and storage employment, 123,481, is 7.16 times the Harrisburg area's warehousing jobs.
• Pennsylvania's plastics product manufacturing employment, 34,094, is 1.98 times the Harrisburg area's warehousing jobs.
• Pennsylvania's pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employment, 20,358, is 1.18 times the Harrisburg area's warehousing jobs.
• Pennsylvania's refrigerated warehousing employment, 4,102, is 0.24 times the Harrisburg area's warehousing jobs.
• Lehigh Valley, also in Pennsylvania, has 19,122 warehousing jobs, 1.11 times Harrisburg's.
• Philadelphia, also in Pennsylvania, has 38,250 warehousing jobs, 2.22 times Harrisburg's.
• Pittsburgh, also in Pennsylvania, has 9,826 warehousing jobs, 0.57 times Harrisburg's.

Who ships pallets here

In Harrisburg-Carlisle, warehousing and storage employs 17,241. 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

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 73 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Harrisburg sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 87,600 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 6 metros of Pennsylvania that have a page here, Harrisburg ranks number 4 by warehousing jobs.

Harrisburg holds 14.0 percent of Pennsylvania's 123,481 private warehousing jobs. See the Pennsylvania page for the whole state.

Other metros in Pennsylvania with their own page: Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lancaster and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre.

Interstates serving the area: I-81.

Words on this page

Nest increment

The extra height each additional empty pallet adds to a nested stack, measured in inches. A small increment means a short stack.

Beam span

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

One-way pallet

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

3PL

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

QCEW

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

Interstate corridor

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

Dock door

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

Intermodal

Freight that changes between truck, rail and ship in the same container.

Last mile

The final leg of a delivery, from a local depot to the customer.