Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Los Angeles

Los Angeles, by road

Freight from the San Pedro Bay ports leaves on I-710, I-5 and I-10, so container pallets and domestic pallets share the same warehouses. Los Angeles is counted here as the metropolitan area in California that the Census Bureau delineates, and its pallet traffic is set by that geography.

The Port of Los Angeles handled 9,447,731 TEUs from January through November 2025, and the Port of Long Beach moved a record 9,881,595 TEUs in 2025, so a very large share of the country's imports lands within a short drive of this area.

Grocery and related product wholesale is where this area is most concentrated, at 1.3 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 205 establishments between them. Santa Fe Springs (90670) leads with 55, 26.8 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Los Angeles County has 19,954 warehousing jobs, 73.3 percent of the 27,225 in the Los Angeles area.
• Orange County has 7,271 warehousing jobs, 26.7 percent of the 27,225 in the Los Angeles area, 12,683 fewer than Los Angeles.
• Los Angeles (90058) has 2 fewer warehousing establishments than Santa Fe Springs (90670), 53 against 55.
• Walnut (91789) has 16 fewer warehousing establishments than Santa Fe Springs (90670), 39 against 55.
• Rowland Heights (91748) has 24 fewer warehousing establishments than Santa Fe Springs (90670), 31 against 55.
• Los Angeles (90040) has 28 fewer warehousing establishments than Santa Fe Springs (90670), 27 against 55.
• Los Angeles County's 19,954 is 8.4 percent of all 236,923 warehousing jobs in California.
• Orange County's 7,271 is 3.1 percent of all 236,923 warehousing jobs in California.
• ZIP 90670 in Santa Fe Springs ranks number 1 of the five, with 55 warehousing establishments, 26.8 percent of their combined total and 2.04 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 90058 in Los Angeles ranks number 2 of the five, with 53 warehousing establishments, 25.9 percent of their combined total and 1.96 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 91789 in Walnut ranks number 3 of the five, with 39 warehousing establishments, 19.0 percent of their combined total and 1.44 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 91748 in Rowland Heights ranks number 4 of the five, with 31 warehousing establishments, 15.1 percent of their combined total and 1.15 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 90040 in Los Angeles ranks number 5 of the five, with 27 warehousing establishments, 13.2 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Grocery and related product wholesale employs 44,471 in the area, 1.63 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 46,988 in the area, 1.73 for every warehousing job.
• California's beverage manufacturing employment, 63,604, is 2.34 times the Los Angeles area's warehousing jobs.
• California's fruit and vegetable preserving employment, 27,518, is 1.01 times the Los Angeles area's warehousing jobs.
• Inland Empire, also in California, has 118,368 warehousing jobs, 4.35 times Los Angeles's.
• Fresno, also in California, has 5,006 warehousing jobs, 0.18 times Los Angeles's.
• Stockton, also in California, has 28,518 warehousing jobs, 1.05 times Los Angeles's.

Who ships pallets here

In Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, grocery and related product wholesale employs 44,471. Grocery distribution runs on the 48 x 40 in footprint, and the choice is between a pallet that stacks full and one that nests empty. It tends to lean on nestable and stackable in the common footprint, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about static load for mixed stacks and whether the deck is open or closed.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 205 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Los Angeles sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 164,000 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 6 metros of California that have a page here, Los Angeles ranks number 3 by warehousing jobs.

Los Angeles holds 11.5 percent of California's 236,923 private warehousing jobs. See the California page for the whole state.

Other metros in California with their own page: Inland Empire, Fresno, Stockton, San Francisco-Oakland and Salinas.

Interstates serving the area: I-10 and I-5.

Words on this page

Dock door

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

Cruciform base

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

Racking load

The weight a pallet holds when it rests on two rack beams with an open gap between them. It is usually the lowest rating and only exists for pallets built for racks.

FM Approvals

A testing and certification body whose classifications insurers and sprinkler designers read.

2-way entry

A pallet that can be lifted from only two opposite sides.

Nest increment

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

QCEW

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

ISPM 15

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

Cube utilisation

How well loaded freight fills the volume of a trailer or container. Taller or wider-than-floor pallets waste cube.