Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Iowa

Iowa, by road

Iowa is a place where i-80 and I-35 cross at Des Moines, and most of what leaves is food, feed and farm inputs. Pallets here follow I-80, I-35, I-29 and I-380, and the distance they travel empty is the cost a nestable cuts.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Polk (4,393), Scott (3,450) and Black Hawk (2,144), which is 50.4 percent of the state's 19,824. It shares a land border with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Iowa held 70 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Polk County has 4,393 warehousing jobs, 22.2 percent of Iowa's 19,824, the most in the state.
• Scott County has 3,450 warehousing jobs, 17.4 percent of Iowa's 19,824, 943 fewer than Polk County.
• Black Hawk County has 2,144 warehousing jobs, 10.8 percent of Iowa's 19,824, 2,249 fewer than Polk County.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 33,386 people in Iowa, 1.68 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 60,161 people in Iowa, 3.03 for every warehousing job.
• Refrigerated warehousing employs 1,814 people in Iowa, 0.09 for every warehousing job.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 3,922 people in Iowa, 0.20 for every warehousing job.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 8,910 people in Iowa, 0.45 for every warehousing job.
• Iowa holds 1.04 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 96, spread over 338 establishments averaging 59 jobs each.
• Des Moines accounts for 4,393 warehousing jobs, 22.2 percent of Iowa's.
• Minnesota has 17,921 warehousing jobs, 0.90 times the 19,824 in Iowa.
• Wisconsin has 33,054 warehousing jobs, 1.67 times the 19,824 in Iowa.
• Illinois has 80,071 warehousing jobs, 4.04 times the 19,824 in Iowa.
• Missouri has 26,726 warehousing jobs, 1.35 times the 19,824 in Iowa.

Who ships pallets here

In Iowa, meat and poultry processing employs 33,386. These plants ask about drainage and cleaning first, then about static load for the product stacked on the pallet. It tends to lean on a washable nestable or stackable that drains, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about whether the deck drains and how the maker says to clean it.

Meat and poultry processing is the trade where Iowa is most concentrated, at 6.1 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 338 warehouse establishments in Iowa sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 270,400 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 Iowa with their own page: Des Moines.

Words on this page

Commodity class

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

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.

Beam span

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

3PL

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

Nest ratio

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

Cruciform base

A base shaped like a plus sign under the pallet, which gives a stable footprint and slides well on conveyors.

ZIP Code Business Patterns

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

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Cross-docking

Moving freight from an inbound truck to an outbound one with little or no storage between.