Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Alabama

Alabama, by road

Mobile gives it a Gulf port, and I-65 carries freight north to Birmingham, Nashville and Louisville. For a plastic pallet buyer in Alabama, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-65, I-20, I-59 and I-85 carry most of what leaves, and every empty pallet that comes back has to ride the same road.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Jefferson (6,920), Mobile (2,677) and Montgomery (1,955), which is 52.8 percent of the state's 21,880. It shares a land border with Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Alabama held 43 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Jefferson County has 6,920 warehousing jobs, 31.6 percent of Alabama's 21,880, the most in the state.
• Mobile County has 2,677 warehousing jobs, 12.2 percent of Alabama's 21,880, 4,243 fewer than Jefferson County.
• Montgomery County has 1,955 warehousing jobs, 8.9 percent of Alabama's 21,880, 4,965 fewer than Jefferson County.
• Motor vehicle manufacturing employs 22,311 people in Alabama, 1.02 for every warehousing job.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 29,218 people in Alabama, 1.34 for every warehousing job.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 24,973 people in Alabama, 1.14 for every warehousing job.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 14,217 people in Alabama, 0.65 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 33,728 people in Alabama, 1.54 for every warehousing job.
• Alabama holds 1.15 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 87, spread over 306 establishments averaging 72 jobs each.
• Mississippi has 25,454 warehousing jobs, 1.16 times the 21,880 in Alabama.
• Tennessee has 53,427 warehousing jobs, 2.44 times the 21,880 in Alabama.
• Georgia has 84,730 warehousing jobs, 3.87 times the 21,880 in Alabama.
• Florida has 105,401 warehousing jobs, 4.82 times the 21,880 in Alabama.

Who ships pallets here

In Alabama, motor vehicle manufacturing employs 22,311. Assembly plants run closed loops with fixed footprints, and 48 x 45 in matches heavy-duty auto parts bulk containers. It tends to lean on heavy-duty stackable pallets in a closed loop, usually in 48 x 45 in, and to ask about the dynamic load for the heaviest part and the pallet's fit with the bulk container.

Motor vehicle manufacturing is the trade where Alabama is most concentrated, at 6 times the national share of employment. A buyer in that trade will tend to ask the questions in the last column first.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 306 warehouse establishments in Alabama sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 153,000 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Next door

Words on this page

Beam span

The open gap between two rack beams. The longer the span, the lower the load the pallet can carry across it.

Drayage

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

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.

Commodity class

A fire-protection category for stored goods and their pallets, used to design sprinkler systems.

QCEW

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

RFID tag

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

Nest increment

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

Edge rack

A rack arrangement where the pallet rests on the edges of the beams. It is the common test case for a racking rating.

Polypropylene

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