Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Idaho

Idaho, by road

Start with the map. I-84 crosses the Snake River plain from Oregon to Utah, and potato and dairy freight leaves on it. The Interstates I-84, I-90 and I-15 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 Ada (1,025), Canyon (654) and Bonneville (175), which is 75.8 percent of the state's 2,445. It shares a land border with Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Idaho held 58 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Ada County has 1,025 warehousing jobs, 41.9 percent of Idaho's 2,445, the most in the state.
• Canyon County has 654 warehousing jobs, 26.7 percent of Idaho's 2,445, 371 fewer than Ada County.
• Bonneville County has 175 warehousing jobs, 7.2 percent of Idaho's 2,445, 850 fewer than Ada County.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving employs 7,461 people in Idaho, 3.05 for every warehousing job.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 5,027 people in Idaho, 2.06 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 21,363 people in Idaho, 8.74 for every warehousing job.
• Idaho holds 0.13 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 769, spread over 146 establishments averaging 17 jobs each.
• Washington has 36,691 warehousing jobs, 15.01 times the 2,445 in Idaho.
• Oregon has 16,750 warehousing jobs, 6.85 times the 2,445 in Idaho.
• Nevada has 42,113 warehousing jobs, 17.22 times the 2,445 in Idaho.
• Utah has 13,683 warehousing jobs, 5.60 times the 2,445 in Idaho.

Who ships pallets here

In Idaho, fruit and vegetable preserving employs 7,461. Seasonal volume means a lot of empties for a few weeks, which is where the nest increment pays: a short stack fits a trailer headed back to the field. It tends to lean on nestable, because bins and pallets return to the grower empty, usually in 48 x 40 in, with 48 x 48 where bins are square, and to ask about the static load for the heaviest filled stack.

Fruit and vegetable preserving is the trade where Idaho is most concentrated, at 7.6 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 146 warehouse establishments in Idaho sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 175,200 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

Drayage

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

Euro pallet

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

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.

Stretch wrap

Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.

3PL

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

2-way entry

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

QCEW

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

ZIP Code Business Patterns

A Census Bureau series that counts establishments by ZIP code and industry.

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.