Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Mississippi

Mississippi, by road

Mississippi is a place where i-55 runs north to Memphis and south to New Orleans, and Gulfport gives it a deepwater port. Pallets here follow I-55, I-20, I-10 and I-59, and the distance they travel empty is the cost a nestable cuts.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are DeSoto (11,634), Madison (4,239) and Marshall (3,876), which is 77.6 percent of the state's 25,454. It shares a land border with Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Mississippi held 14 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• DeSoto County has 11,634 warehousing jobs, 45.7 percent of Mississippi's 25,454, the most in the state.
• Madison County has 4,239 warehousing jobs, 16.7 percent of Mississippi's 25,454, 7,395 fewer than DeSoto County.
• Marshall County has 3,876 warehousing jobs, 15.2 percent of Mississippi's 25,454, 7,758 fewer than DeSoto County.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 18,648 people in Mississippi, 0.73 for every warehousing job.
• Motor vehicle manufacturing employs 5,745 people in Mississippi, 0.23 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 24,727 people in Mississippi, 0.97 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 25,454 people in Mississippi, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 4,926 people in Mississippi, 0.19 for every warehousing job.
• Mississippi holds 1.34 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 75, spread over 305 establishments averaging 83 jobs each.
• Louisiana has 15,312 warehousing jobs, 0.60 times the 25,454 in Mississippi.
• Arkansas has 15,624 warehousing jobs, 0.61 times the 25,454 in Mississippi.
• Tennessee has 53,427 warehousing jobs, 2.10 times the 25,454 in Mississippi.
• Alabama has 21,880 warehousing jobs, 0.86 times the 25,454 in Mississippi.

Who ships pallets here

In Mississippi, meat and poultry processing employs 18,648. 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 Mississippi is most concentrated, at 4.7 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 305 warehouse establishments in Mississippi sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 244,000 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

Footprint

The length and width of a pallet deck. It is chosen to fit the container, the drum, the bag or the receiving rack.

Cross-docking

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

QCEW

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

Nest ratio

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

Drayage

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

Dock door

The opening where a trailer backs to a building so pallets can be loaded and unloaded.

Cruciform base

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

FM Approvals

A testing and certification body whose classifications insurers and sprinkler designers read.

UL

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