Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Montana

Montana, by road

Start with the map. Distances are long and loads are few, so a pallet that returns light is worth more than one that returns cheap. The Interstates I-90, I-94 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 Yellowstone (122), Gallatin (48) and Toole (45), which is 50.2 percent of the state's 428. It shares a land border with North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho.

Warehousing in numbers

Montana reports no refrigerated warehouse capacity separately in the USDA table we used, so the cold question depends on the individual customer.

Reading the numbers

• Yellowstone County has 122 warehousing jobs, 28.5 percent of Montana's 428, the most in the state.
• Gallatin County has 48 warehousing jobs, 11.2 percent of Montana's 428, 74 fewer than Yellowstone County.
• Toole County has 45 warehousing jobs, 10.5 percent of Montana's 428, 77 fewer than Yellowstone County.
• Food manufacturing employs 2,492 people in Montana, 5.82 for every warehousing job.
• Grocery and related product wholesale employs 2,459 people in Montana, 5.75 for every warehousing job.
• Montana holds 0.02 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 5000, spread over 52 establishments averaging 8 jobs each.
• North Dakota has 1,438 warehousing jobs, 3.36 times the 428 in Montana.
• South Dakota has 3,269 warehousing jobs, 7.64 times the 428 in Montana.
• Wyoming has 1,974 warehousing jobs, 4.61 times the 428 in Montana.
• Idaho has 2,445 warehousing jobs, 5.71 times the 428 in Montana.

Who ships pallets here

In Montana, food manufacturing employs 2,492. The buyer here is usually a plant or sanitation manager, and the questions are cleaning, deck type and what paperwork comes with the model. It tends to lean on nestable or stackable that washes down, open or closed deck by product, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about resin and colourant documentation, since FDA does not approve pallet models.

Food manufacturing is the trade where Montana is most concentrated, at 0.4 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 52 warehouse establishments in Montana sent back 1,200 empty pallets in a week, that would be 62,400 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

Intermodal

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

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.

FM Approvals

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

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.

Bulk bag

A large woven bag, often sold as a Super Sack, that holds a ton or so of powder or granules and sits on a square pallet.

Euro pallet

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

ZIP Code Business Patterns

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

UL

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