Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Kansas City

Kansas City, by road

I-35, I-70 and I-29 meet on the state line, so the metro spans Missouri and Kansas. Kansas City is counted here as the metropolitan area in Missouri that the Census Bureau delineates, and its pallet traffic is set by that geography.

Warehousing and storage is where this area is most concentrated, at 1.5 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, Wyandotte and Bates... counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 65 establishments between them. Kansas City (64161) leads with 18, 27.7 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Johnson County has 6,642 warehousing jobs, 32.1 percent of the 20,676 in the Kansas City area.
• Wyandotte County has 6,378 warehousing jobs, 30.8 percent of the 20,676 in the Kansas City area, 264 fewer than Johnson.
• Cass County has 3,306 warehousing jobs, 16.0 percent of the 20,676 in the Kansas City area, 3,336 fewer than Johnson.
• Kansas City (64116) has 4 fewer warehousing establishments than Kansas City (64161), 14 against 18.
• Kansas City (64120) has 5 fewer warehousing establishments than Kansas City (64161), 13 against 18.
• Edgerton (66021) has 7 fewer warehousing establishments than Kansas City (64161), 11 against 18.
• Kansas City (66115) has 9 fewer warehousing establishments than Kansas City (64161), 9 against 18.
• Johnson County's 6,642 is 24.9 percent of all 26,726 warehousing jobs in Missouri.
• Wyandotte County's 6,378 is 23.9 percent of all 26,726 warehousing jobs in Missouri.
• Cass County's 3,306 is 12.4 percent of all 26,726 warehousing jobs in Missouri.
• ZIP 64161 in Kansas City ranks number 1 of the five, with 18 warehousing establishments, 27.7 percent of their combined total and 2.00 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 64116 in Kansas City ranks number 2 of the five, with 14 warehousing establishments, 21.5 percent of their combined total and 1.56 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 64120 in Kansas City ranks number 3 of the five, with 13 warehousing establishments, 20.0 percent of their combined total and 1.44 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 66021 in Edgerton ranks number 4 of the five, with 11 warehousing establishments, 16.9 percent of their combined total and 1.22 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 66115 in Kansas City ranks number 5 of the five, with 9 warehousing establishments, 13.8 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Warehousing and storage employs 20,676 in the area (partial), 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employs 3,433 in the area (partial), 0.17 for every warehousing job.
• Missouri's motor vehicle manufacturing employment, 13,274, is 0.64 times the Kansas City area's warehousing jobs.
• Missouri's dairy product manufacturing employment, 6,107, is 0.30 times the Kansas City area's warehousing jobs.
• Missouri's meat and poultry processing employment, 16,925, is 0.82 times the Kansas City area's warehousing jobs.
• Missouri's fruit and vegetable preserving employment, 4,877, is 0.24 times the Kansas City area's warehousing jobs.
• St. Louis, also in Missouri, has 16,879 warehousing jobs, 0.82 times Kansas City's.

Who ships pallets here

In Kansas City, warehousing and storage employs 20,676 (a partial count). 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 65 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Kansas City sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 52,000 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 Missouri that have a page here, Kansas City ranks number 1 by warehousing jobs.

Kansas City holds 77.4 percent of Missouri's 26,726 private warehousing jobs. See the Missouri page for the whole state.

Other metros in Missouri with their own page: St. Louis.

Interstates serving the area: I-70 and I-35.

Words on this page

QCEW

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

Polypropylene

Another common pallet resin, lighter and stiffer than some others, with its own behaviour in the cold.

ZIP Code Business Patterns

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

Closed deck

A solid deck that keeps small items and torn bags from falling through and wipes clean on top.

UL

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

Creep

Slow, permanent bending of plastic under a steady load. A pallet can hold a load for an hour and bow under it after a month.

3PL

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

Stretch wrap

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

Dock door

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