Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Ohio

Ohio, by road

Five Interstates cross it, and the Ohio Turnpike carries I-80 across the north. For a plastic pallet buyer in Ohio, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-70, I-71, I-75, I-77 and I-80 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 Franklin (18,179), Cuyahoga (12,498) and Madison (7,480), which is 38.8 percent of the state's 98,354. It shares a land border with Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Ohio held 74 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Franklin County has 18,179 warehousing jobs, 18.5 percent of Ohio's 98,354, the most in the state.
• Cuyahoga County has 12,498 warehousing jobs, 12.7 percent of Ohio's 98,354, 5,681 fewer than Franklin County.
• Madison County has 7,480 warehousing jobs, 7.6 percent of Ohio's 98,354, 10,699 fewer than Franklin County.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 62,025 people in Ohio, 0.63 for every warehousing job.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 42,286 people in Ohio, 0.43 for every warehousing job.
• Motor vehicle manufacturing employs 19,070 people in Ohio, 0.19 for every warehousing job.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving employs 10,327 people in Ohio, 0.10 for every warehousing job.
• Chemical manufacturing employs 49,328 people in Ohio, 0.50 for every warehousing job.
• Ohio holds 5.17 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 19, spread over 1,022 establishments averaging 96 jobs each.
• Columbus accounts for 34,200 warehousing jobs, 34.8 percent of Ohio's.
• Cincinnati accounts for 19,940 warehousing jobs, 20.3 percent of Ohio's.
• Cleveland accounts for 13,652 warehousing jobs, 13.9 percent of Ohio's.
• Pennsylvania has 123,481 warehousing jobs, 1.26 times the 98,354 in Ohio.
• West Virginia has 3,631 warehousing jobs, 0.04 times the 98,354 in Ohio.
• Kentucky has 38,281 warehousing jobs, 0.39 times the 98,354 in Ohio.
• Indiana has 67,506 warehousing jobs, 0.69 times the 98,354 in Ohio.

Who ships pallets here

In Ohio, motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 62,025. Parts suppliers move heavy loads in a loop with a customer, so dynamic load and a sound return plan matter together. It tends to lean on heavy-duty stackable pallets, nestable on the empty return, usually in 48 x 45 in or 48 x 40 in, and to ask about the dynamic load, since parts travel on forklifts and conveyors all day.

Motor vehicle parts manufacturing is the trade where Ohio is most concentrated, at 3.3 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 1,022 warehouse establishments in Ohio sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 511,000 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

Metros in Ohio with their own page: Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland.

Words on this page

QCEW

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

ISPM 15

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

Cross-docking

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

4-way entry

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

3PL

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

ZIP Code Business Patterns

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

Dunnage

Loose material used to support or secure cargo inside a trailer or container.

Last mile

The final leg of a delivery, from a local depot to the customer.

Metropolitan area

A group of counties around an urban core, as the Census Bureau delineates it. Metro pages here follow those lines.