Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Houston

Houston, by road

The Houston Ship Channel feeds petrochemical and plastics plants, and I-10, I-45 and US-59 move what comes off the docks. The Houston area sits in Texas, and the freight pattern follows the roads above.

Port Houston's public terminals handled 4,303,345 TEUs in 2025, a record, and the Houston Ship Channel is described as the nation's largest port for waterborne tonnage.

Chemical manufacturing is where this area is most concentrated, at 2.2 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston and Harris... counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 107 establishments between them. La Porte (77571) leads with 33, 30.8 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Harris County has 23,802 warehousing jobs, 70.5 percent of the 33,785 in the Houston area.
• Fort Bend County has 5,368 warehousing jobs, 15.9 percent of the 33,785 in the Houston area, 18,434 fewer than Harris.
• Montgomery County has 1,828 warehousing jobs, 5.4 percent of the 33,785 in the Houston area, 21,974 fewer than Harris.
• Houston (77032) has 9 fewer warehousing establishments than La Porte (77571), 24 against 33.
• Baytown (77523) has 15 fewer warehousing establishments than La Porte (77571), 18 against 33.
• Houston (77029) has 16 fewer warehousing establishments than La Porte (77571), 17 against 33.
• Pasadena (77507) has 18 fewer warehousing establishments than La Porte (77571), 15 against 33.
• Harris County's 23,802 is 13.6 percent of all 175,579 warehousing jobs in Texas.
• Fort Bend County's 5,368 is 3.1 percent of all 175,579 warehousing jobs in Texas.
• Montgomery County's 1,828 is 1.0 percent of all 175,579 warehousing jobs in Texas.
• ZIP 77571 in La Porte ranks number 1 of the five, with 33 warehousing establishments, 30.8 percent of their combined total and 2.20 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 77032 in Houston ranks number 2 of the five, with 24 warehousing establishments, 22.4 percent of their combined total and 1.60 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 77523 in Baytown ranks number 3 of the five, with 18 warehousing establishments, 16.8 percent of their combined total and 1.20 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 77029 in Houston ranks number 4 of the five, with 17 warehousing establishments, 15.9 percent of their combined total and 1.13 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 77507 in Pasadena ranks number 5 of the five, with 15 warehousing establishments, 14.0 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Chemical manufacturing employs 42,669 in the area, 1.26 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 33,785 in the area (partial), 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Texas's warehousing and storage employment, 175,579, is 5.20 times the Houston area's warehousing jobs.
• Texas's food manufacturing employment, 112,088, is 3.32 times the Houston area's warehousing jobs.
• Dallas-Fort Worth, also in Texas, has 82,593 warehousing jobs, 2.44 times Houston's.
• Laredo, also in Texas, has 2,014 warehousing jobs, 0.06 times Houston's.
• San Antonio, also in Texas, has 16,751 warehousing jobs, 0.50 times Houston's.

Who ships pallets here

In Houston-The Woodlands, chemical manufacturing employs 42,669. Chemical shippers ask about footprint first because the container decides it, then about static load and fire listing for the storage area. It tends to lean on stackable heavy-duty pallets sized to the drum or bag, usually in 45 x 45 in (CP9) or 48 x 48 in for drums, and to ask about the static load with the container on it, and any fire listing.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 107 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Houston sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 128,400 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 5 metros of Texas that have a page here, Houston ranks number 2 by warehousing jobs.

Houston holds 19.2 percent of Texas's 175,579 private warehousing jobs. See the Texas page for the whole state.

Other metros in Texas with their own page: Dallas-Fort Worth, Laredo, San Antonio and Austin.

Interstates serving the area: I-10.

Words on this page

Stretch wrap

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

Drayage

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

Pallet pooling

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

3PL

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

UL

Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.

TEU

Twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard way ports count containers. A 40 ft container is two TEUs.

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.

ISPM 15

An international standard on treating and marking wood packaging material. Plastic is outside it.