Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Arizona

Arizona, by road

Start with the map. It borders Mexico, and I-10 ties Phoenix to the Los Angeles ports on one side and El Paso and Houston on the other. The Interstates I-10, I-17 and I-40 set the haul lengths, and the longer the haul, the more an empty stack's height matters.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Maricopa (42,291), Pima (8,731) and Santa Cruz (572), which is 99.1 percent of the state's 52,054. It shares a land border with California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Arizona held 4 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Maricopa County has 42,291 warehousing jobs, 81.2 percent of Arizona's 52,054, the most in the state.
• Pima County has 8,731 warehousing jobs, 16.8 percent of Arizona's 52,054, 33,560 fewer than Maricopa County.
• Santa Cruz County has 572 warehousing jobs, 1.1 percent of Arizona's 52,054, 41,719 fewer than Maricopa County.
• Warehousing and storage employs 52,054 people in Arizona, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 15,944 people in Arizona, 0.31 for every warehousing job.
• Arizona holds 2.74 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 36, spread over 345 establishments averaging 151 jobs each.
• Phoenix accounts for 42,340 warehousing jobs, 81.3 percent of Arizona's.
• California has 236,923 warehousing jobs, 4.55 times the 52,054 in Arizona.
• Nevada has 42,113 warehousing jobs, 0.81 times the 52,054 in Arizona.
• Utah has 13,683 warehousing jobs, 0.26 times the 52,054 in Arizona.
• Colorado has 24,541 warehousing jobs, 0.47 times the 52,054 in Arizona.

Who ships pallets here

In Arizona, warehousing and storage employs 52,054. 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.

Warehousing and storage is the trade where Arizona is most concentrated, at 1.3 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 345 warehouse establishments in Arizona sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 414,000 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

Metros in Arizona with their own page: Phoenix.

Words on this page

Closed deck

A solid deck that keeps small items and torn bags from falling through and wipes clean on top.

Slip sheet

A thin sheet of plastic or fibreboard used under a load in place of a pallet, handled by a push-pull attachment.

QCEW

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

3PL

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

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Gross cubic feet

The total volume of a refrigerated warehouse. Usable space is smaller once aisles and equipment are subtracted.

Euro pallet

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

ISPM 15

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

Pallet jack

A hand or powered truck with two forks, used to move a pallet short distances.