Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Kansas

Kansas, by road

Kansas is a place where i-70 crosses it east to west, and I-35 brings Kansas City and Wichita onto the same north-south line. Pallets here follow I-70, I-35 and I-135, and the distance they travel empty is the cost a nestable cuts.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Johnson (6,642), Wyandotte (6,378) and Shawnee (2,074), which is 71.3 percent of the state's 21,158. It shares a land border with Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Kansas held 46 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Johnson County has 6,642 warehousing jobs, 31.4 percent of Kansas's 21,158, the most in the state.
• Wyandotte County has 6,378 warehousing jobs, 30.1 percent of Kansas's 21,158, 264 fewer than Johnson County.
• Shawnee County has 2,074 warehousing jobs, 9.8 percent of Kansas's 21,158, 4,568 fewer than Johnson County.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 19,716 people in Kansas, 0.93 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 37,772 people in Kansas, 1.79 for every warehousing job.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employs 4,682 people in Kansas, 0.22 for every warehousing job.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 7,339 people in Kansas, 0.35 for every warehousing job.
• Kansas holds 1.11 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 90, spread over 293 establishments averaging 72 jobs each.
• Nebraska has 8,246 warehousing jobs, 0.39 times the 21,158 in Kansas.
• Missouri has 26,726 warehousing jobs, 1.26 times the 21,158 in Kansas.
• Oklahoma has 19,669 warehousing jobs, 0.93 times the 21,158 in Kansas.
• Colorado has 24,541 warehousing jobs, 1.16 times the 21,158 in Kansas.

Who ships pallets here

In Kansas, meat and poultry processing employs 19,716. Processing floors are wet, so open decks that drain and shed water matter, and so does a maker's cleaning guidance. 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 Kansas is most concentrated, at 4 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 293 warehouse establishments in Kansas sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 234,400 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

Words on this page

ZIP Code Business Patterns

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

Stretch wrap

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

Drayage

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

3PL

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

Nest increment

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

Intermodal

Freight that changes between truck, rail and ship in the same container.

4-way entry

A pallet that forks or a pallet jack can enter from all four sides.

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

QCEW

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