Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Massachusetts

Massachusetts, by road

The Mass Pike runs east to west and I-495 loops the Boston area, which puts many warehouses on a ring road. For a plastic pallet buyer in Massachusetts, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-90, I-95, I-93 and I-495 carry most of what leaves, and every empty pallet that comes back has to ride the same road.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Essex (5,323), Worcester (4,052) and Bristol (3,283), which is 61.2 percent of the state's 20,695. It shares a land border with New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Massachusetts held 54 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Essex County has 5,323 warehousing jobs, 25.7 percent of Massachusetts's 20,695, the most in the state.
• Worcester County has 4,052 warehousing jobs, 19.6 percent of Massachusetts's 20,695, 1,271 fewer than Essex County.
• Bristol County has 3,283 warehousing jobs, 15.9 percent of Massachusetts's 20,695, 2,040 fewer than Essex County.
• Refrigerated warehousing employs 3,299 people in Massachusetts, 0.16 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 29,036 people in Massachusetts, 1.40 for every warehousing job.
• Massachusetts holds 1.09 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 92, spread over 248 establishments averaging 83 jobs each.
• New Hampshire has 3,283 warehousing jobs, 0.16 times the 20,695 in Massachusetts.
• Vermont has 1,057 warehousing jobs, 0.05 times the 20,695 in Massachusetts.
• New York has 55,371 warehousing jobs, 2.68 times the 20,695 in Massachusetts.
• Connecticut has 25,127 warehousing jobs, 1.21 times the 20,695 in Massachusetts.

Who ships pallets here

In Massachusetts, refrigerated warehousing employs 3,299. Cold rooms ask the cold question first, because a rating taken at room temperature says little about a pallet that lives in a freezer. It tends to lean on stackable or nestable, with a cold rating from the maker, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about a statement of how the resin behaves at freezer temperature.

Refrigerated warehousing is the trade where Massachusetts is most concentrated, at 1.9 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 248 warehouse establishments in Massachusetts sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 124,000 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

Words on this page

ISPM 15

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

Cruciform base

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

UL

Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.

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.

Euro pallet

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

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.

4-way entry

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