Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Louisville

Louisville, by road

I-64, I-65 and I-71 meet on the Ohio River, and the airport is a UPS hub. Louisville is counted here as the metropolitan area in Kentucky that the Census Bureau delineates, and its pallet traffic is set by that geography.

Motor vehicle parts manufacturing is where this area is most concentrated, at 2 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Washington, Bullitt and Henry... counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 67 establishments between them. Jeffersonville (47130) leads with 19, 28.4 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Bullitt County has 7,642 warehousing jobs, 52.6 percent of the 14,533 in the Louisville area.
• Jefferson County has 6,859 warehousing jobs, 47.2 percent of the 14,533 in the Louisville area, 783 fewer than Bullitt.
• Floyd County has 18 warehousing jobs, 0.1 percent of the 14,533 in the Louisville area, 7,624 fewer than Bullitt.
• Louisville (40258) has 1 fewer warehousing establishments than Jeffersonville (47130), 18 against 19.
• Louisville (40299) has 5 fewer warehousing establishments than Jeffersonville (47130), 14 against 19.
• Shepherdsville (40165) has 10 fewer warehousing establishments than Jeffersonville (47130), 9 against 19.
• Louisville (40216) has 12 fewer warehousing establishments than Jeffersonville (47130), 7 against 19.
• Bullitt County's 7,642 is 20.0 percent of all 38,281 warehousing jobs in Kentucky.
• Jefferson County's 6,859 is 17.9 percent of all 38,281 warehousing jobs in Kentucky.
• Floyd County's 18 is 0.0 percent of all 38,281 warehousing jobs in Kentucky.
• ZIP 47130 in Jeffersonville ranks number 1 of the five, with 19 warehousing establishments, 28.4 percent of their combined total and 2.71 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 40258 in Louisville ranks number 2 of the five, with 18 warehousing establishments, 26.9 percent of their combined total and 2.57 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 40299 in Louisville ranks number 3 of the five, with 14 warehousing establishments, 20.9 percent of their combined total and 2.00 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 40165 in Shepherdsville ranks number 4 of the five, with 9 warehousing establishments, 13.4 percent of their combined total and 1.29 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 40216 in Louisville ranks number 5 of the five, with 7 warehousing establishments, 10.4 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 4,707 in the area (partial), 0.32 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 14,533 in the area (partial), 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Beverage manufacturing employs 2,117 in the area (partial), 0.15 for every warehousing job.
• Kentucky's motor vehicle manufacturing employment, 23,308, is 1.60 times the Louisville area's warehousing jobs.
• Kentucky's motor vehicle parts manufacturing employment, 32,261, is 2.22 times the Louisville area's warehousing jobs.
• Kentucky's beverage manufacturing employment, 10,105, is 0.70 times the Louisville area's warehousing jobs.
• Kentucky's plastics product manufacturing employment, 13,820, is 0.95 times the Louisville area's warehousing jobs.

Who ships pallets here

In Louisville/Jefferson County, motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 4,707 (a partial count). Suppliers weigh the dynamic rating against the way parts move, and ask whether the pallet nests when it comes back empty. It tends to lean on heavy-duty stackable pallets, nestable on the empty return, usually in 48 x 45 in or 48 x 40 in, and to ask about the dynamic load, since parts travel on forklifts and conveyors all day.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 67 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Louisville sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 53,600 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 1 metros of Kentucky that have a page here, Louisville ranks number 1 by warehousing jobs.

Louisville holds 38.0 percent of Kentucky's 38,281 private warehousing jobs. See the Kentucky page for the whole state.

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.

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.

Dynamic load

The weight a pallet holds while it is moved by a forklift, pallet jack or conveyor. It is lower than static because motion adds shock.

Drayage

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

Cube utilisation

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

Cross-docking

Moving freight from an inbound truck to an outbound one with little or no storage between.

Nest ratio

How many empty pallets fit in the height of one: pallet height divided by nest increment.

Recycled content

The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.

Dock door

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