Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Colorado

Colorado, by road

Start with the map. Denver is where I-25 from Wyoming to New Mexico meets I-70 coming over the Rockies, so loads often cross a mountain pass. The Interstates I-25, I-70 and I-76 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 Adams (12,162), Denver (2,456) and Arapahoe (944), which is 63.4 percent of the state's 24,541. It shares a land border with Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Utah.

Warehousing in numbers

Colorado reports no refrigerated warehouse capacity separately in the USDA table we used, so the cold question depends on the individual customer.

Reading the numbers

• Adams County has 12,162 warehousing jobs, 49.6 percent of Colorado's 24,541, the most in the state.
• Denver County has 2,456 warehousing jobs, 10.0 percent of Colorado's 24,541, 9,706 fewer than Adams County.
• Arapahoe County has 944 warehousing jobs, 3.8 percent of Colorado's 24,541, 11,218 fewer than Adams County.
• Food manufacturing employs 26,569 people in Colorado, 1.08 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 24,541 people in Colorado, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Colorado holds 1.29 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 78, spread over 304 establishments averaging 81 jobs each.
• Denver accounts for 15,858 warehousing jobs, 64.6 percent of Colorado's.
• Wyoming has 1,974 warehousing jobs, 0.08 times the 24,541 in Colorado.
• Nebraska has 8,246 warehousing jobs, 0.34 times the 24,541 in Colorado.
• Kansas has 21,158 warehousing jobs, 0.86 times the 24,541 in Colorado.
• Oklahoma has 19,669 warehousing jobs, 0.80 times the 24,541 in Colorado.

Who ships pallets here

In Colorado, food manufacturing employs 26,569. Food plants want a pallet they can wash, which points at a smooth moulded deck, and they should ask the maker for resin and colourant paperwork rather than a blanket approval. It tends to lean on nestable or stackable that washes down, open or closed deck by product, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about resin and colourant documentation, since FDA does not approve pallet models.

Food manufacturing is the trade where Colorado is most concentrated, at 0.8 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 304 warehouse establishments in Colorado sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 364,800 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Next door

Metros in Colorado with their own page: Denver.

Words on this page

2-way entry

A pallet that can be lifted from only two opposite sides.

Nest ratio

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

Nest increment

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

Pallet jack

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

Polypropylene

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

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.

Bulk bag

A large woven bag, often sold as a Super Sack, that holds a ton or so of powder or granules and sits on a square pallet.

RFID tag

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

Drayage

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