Nestable and Stackable Pallets: New York

New York, by road

Upstate freight follows the Thruway and I-81 through Syracuse, while downstate loads fight for bridges. For a plastic pallet buyer in New York, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-90, I-87, I-81, I-84 and I-95 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 Onondaga (6,329), Monroe (5,986) and Erie (3,237), which is 28.1 percent of the state's 55,371. It shares a land border with New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. New York held 56 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Onondaga County has 6,329 warehousing jobs, 11.4 percent of New York's 55,371, the most in the state.
• Monroe County has 5,986 warehousing jobs, 10.8 percent of New York's 55,371, 343 fewer than Onondaga County.
• Erie County has 3,237 warehousing jobs, 5.8 percent of New York's 55,371, 3,092 fewer than Onondaga County.
• Food manufacturing employs 60,316 people in New York, 1.09 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 55,371 people in New York, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• New York holds 2.91 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 34, spread over 833 establishments averaging 66 jobs each.
• New Jersey has 76,152 warehousing jobs, 1.38 times the 55,371 in New York.
• Pennsylvania has 123,481 warehousing jobs, 2.23 times the 55,371 in New York.
• Connecticut has 25,127 warehousing jobs, 0.45 times the 55,371 in New York.
• Massachusetts has 20,695 warehousing jobs, 0.37 times the 55,371 in New York.

Who ships pallets here

In New York, food manufacturing employs 60,316. 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 New York is most concentrated, at 0.5 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 833 warehouse establishments in New York sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 416,500 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

Interstate corridor

A freight route named for its highway, together with the metros along it.

Beam span

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

Euro pallet

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

Gross cubic feet

The total volume of a refrigerated warehouse. Usable space is smaller once aisles and equipment are subtracted.

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.

Open deck

A deck with slots or a grid, which drains water, sheds dust and weighs less than a solid one.

Racking load

The weight a pallet holds when it rests on two rack beams with an open gap between them. It is usually the lowest rating and only exists for pallets built for racks.

Recycled content

The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.