Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Phoenix

Phoenix, by road

I-10, I-17 and the Loop 101 and 202 freeways serve warehouses that sit on a flat desert grid. Phoenix is counted here as the metropolitan area in Arizona 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 1.4 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Maricopa and Pinal counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 128 establishments between them. Phoenix (85043) leads with 61, 47.7 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Maricopa County has 42,291 warehousing jobs, 99.9 percent of the 42,340 in the Phoenix area.
• Pinal County has 49 warehousing jobs, 0.1 percent of the 42,340 in the Phoenix area, 42,242 fewer than Maricopa.
• Tolleson (85353) has 40 fewer warehousing establishments than Phoenix (85043), 21 against 61.
• Phoenix (85009) has 41 fewer warehousing establishments than Phoenix (85043), 20 against 61.
• Phoenix (85034) has 46 fewer warehousing establishments than Phoenix (85043), 15 against 61.
• Phoenix (85040) has 50 fewer warehousing establishments than Phoenix (85043), 11 against 61.
• Maricopa County's 42,291 is 81.2 percent of all 52,054 warehousing jobs in Arizona.
• Pinal County's 49 is 0.1 percent of all 52,054 warehousing jobs in Arizona.
• ZIP 85043 in Phoenix ranks number 1 of the five, with 61 warehousing establishments, 47.7 percent of their combined total and 5.55 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 85353 in Tolleson ranks number 2 of the five, with 21 warehousing establishments, 16.4 percent of their combined total and 1.91 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 85009 in Phoenix ranks number 3 of the five, with 20 warehousing establishments, 15.6 percent of their combined total and 1.82 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 85034 in Phoenix ranks number 4 of the five, with 15 warehousing establishments, 11.7 percent of their combined total and 1.36 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 85040 in Phoenix ranks number 5 of the five, with 11 warehousing establishments, 8.6 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Warehousing and storage employs 42,340 in the area, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 13,457 in the area, 0.32 for every warehousing job.
• Arizona's warehousing and storage employment, 52,054, is 1.23 times the Phoenix area's warehousing jobs.
• Arizona's food manufacturing employment, 15,944, is 0.38 times the Phoenix area's warehousing jobs.

Who ships pallets here

In Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, warehousing and storage employs 42,340. 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 128 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Phoenix sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 102,400 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 1 metros of Arizona that have a page here, Phoenix ranks number 1 by warehousing jobs.

Phoenix holds 81.3 percent of Arizona's 52,054 private warehousing jobs. See the Arizona page for the whole state.

Interstates serving the area: I-10.

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.

Intermodal

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

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.

ISPM 15

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

Nest ratio

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

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.

Recycled content

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

Drayage

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