Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Seattle-Tacoma

Seattle-Tacoma, by road

Seattle and Tacoma operate as one port alliance, with I-5 and I-90 behind them. Seattle-Tacoma is counted here as the metropolitan area in Washington that the Census Bureau delineates, and its pallet traffic is set by that geography.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance, Seattle and Tacoma together, handled 3,156,598 TEUs in 2025, down 5.5 percent from 2024.

Warehousing and storage is where this area is most concentrated, at 0.9 times the national share of employment. The area reaches into Snohomish, King and Pierce counties.

Counties

ZIP codes with the most warehouses

The five largest ZIP codes hold 131 establishments between them. Kent (98032) leads with 41, 31.3 percent of the five.

Reading the numbers

• Pierce County has 10,323 warehousing jobs, 44.8 percent of the 23,062 in the Seattle-Tacoma area.
• King County has 9,341 warehousing jobs, 40.5 percent of the 23,062 in the Seattle-Tacoma area, 982 fewer than Pierce.
• Snohomish County has 3,398 warehousing jobs, 14.7 percent of the 23,062 in the Seattle-Tacoma area, 6,925 fewer than Pierce.
• Sumner (98390) has 8 fewer warehousing establishments than Kent (98032), 33 against 41.
• Auburn (98001) has 18 fewer warehousing establishments than Kent (98032), 23 against 41.
• Tacoma (98421) has 22 fewer warehousing establishments than Kent (98032), 19 against 41.
• Fife (98424) has 26 fewer warehousing establishments than Kent (98032), 15 against 41.
• Pierce County's 10,323 is 28.1 percent of all 36,691 warehousing jobs in Washington.
• King County's 9,341 is 25.5 percent of all 36,691 warehousing jobs in Washington.
• Snohomish County's 3,398 is 9.3 percent of all 36,691 warehousing jobs in Washington.
• ZIP 98032 in Kent ranks number 1 of the five, with 41 warehousing establishments, 31.3 percent of their combined total and 2.73 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 98390 in Sumner ranks number 2 of the five, with 33 warehousing establishments, 25.2 percent of their combined total and 2.20 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 98001 in Auburn ranks number 3 of the five, with 23 warehousing establishments, 17.6 percent of their combined total and 1.53 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 98421 in Tacoma ranks number 4 of the five, with 19 warehousing establishments, 14.5 percent of their combined total and 1.27 times the smallest of them.
• ZIP 98424 in Fife ranks number 5 of the five, with 15 warehousing establishments, 11.5 percent of their combined total and 1.00 times the smallest of them.
• Warehousing and storage employs 23,062 in the area, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 15,003 in the area, 0.65 for every warehousing job.
• Washington's fruit and vegetable preserving employment, 10,988, is 0.48 times the Seattle-Tacoma area's warehousing jobs.
• Washington's grocery and related product wholesale employment, 23,876, is 1.04 times the Seattle-Tacoma area's warehousing jobs.
• Yakima, also in Washington, has 1,309 warehousing jobs, 0.06 times Seattle-Tacoma's.

Who ships pallets here

In Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, warehousing and storage employs 23,062. Most of the demand is for general pallets in the common footprint, with the choice split between rack service and block stacking. 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 131 warehouses in its five largest ZIP codes in Seattle-Tacoma sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 104,800 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 Washington that have a page here, Seattle-Tacoma ranks number 1 by warehousing jobs.

Seattle-Tacoma holds 62.9 percent of Washington's 36,691 private warehousing jobs. See the Washington page for the whole state.

Other metros in Washington with their own page: Yakima.

Interstates serving the area: I-5.

Words on this page

RFID tag

A small radio tag moulded into or attached to a pallet so readers can track it through a plant or a loop.

Pallet pooling

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

Drayage

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

3PL

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

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.

Establishment

A single physical location where a business operates, such as one warehouse. A company with ten warehouses has ten establishments.

Recycled content

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

Nest increment

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

Euro pallet

A 1200 by 800 millimetre pallet, about 48 by 31.5 inches, widely used in Europe.