Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Tennessee

Tennessee, by road

Memphis has the Mississippi River and a FedEx hub, and I-40 crosses the whole state from Memphis to Knoxville. For a plastic pallet buyer in Tennessee, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-40, I-65, I-75, I-24 and I-81 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 Shelby (11,727), Wilson (9,641) and Rutherford (5,778), which is 50.8 percent of the state's 53,427. It shares a land border with Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Tennessee held 68 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Shelby County has 11,727 warehousing jobs, 21.9 percent of Tennessee's 53,427, the most in the state.
• Wilson County has 9,641 warehousing jobs, 18.0 percent of Tennessee's 53,427, 2,086 fewer than Shelby County.
• Rutherford County has 5,778 warehousing jobs, 10.8 percent of Tennessee's 53,427, 5,949 fewer than Shelby County.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 38,791 people in Tennessee, 0.73 for every warehousing job.
• Motor vehicle manufacturing employs 19,453 people in Tennessee, 0.36 for every warehousing job.
• Chemical manufacturing employs 27,214 people in Tennessee, 0.51 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 53,427 people in Tennessee, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Tennessee holds 2.81 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 36, spread over 642 establishments averaging 83 jobs each.
• Memphis accounts for 27,742 warehousing jobs, 51.9 percent of Tennessee's.
• Nashville accounts for 19,548 warehousing jobs, 36.6 percent of Tennessee's.
• Knoxville accounts for 1,751 warehousing jobs, 3.3 percent of Tennessee's.
• Kentucky has 38,281 warehousing jobs, 0.72 times the 53,427 in Tennessee.
• Virginia has 51,123 warehousing jobs, 0.96 times the 53,427 in Tennessee.
• North Carolina has 54,551 warehousing jobs, 1.02 times the 53,427 in Tennessee.
• Georgia has 84,730 warehousing jobs, 1.59 times the 53,427 in Tennessee.

Who ships pallets here

In Tennessee, motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 38,791. Suppliers weigh the dynamic rating against the way parts move, and ask whether the pallet nests when it comes back empty. 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 Tennessee is most concentrated, at 3.5 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 642 warehouse establishments in Tennessee sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 321,000 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 Tennessee with their own page: Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville.

Words on this page

Interstate corridor

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

ISPM 15

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

Dock door

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

RFID tag

A small radio tag moulded into or attached to a pallet so readers can track it through a plant or a loop.

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.

Closed deck

A solid deck that keeps small items and torn bags from falling through and wipes clean on top.

Commodity class

A fire-protection category for stored goods and their pallets, used to design sprinkler systems.

Nest ratio

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

Nest increment

The extra height each additional empty pallet adds to a nested stack, measured in inches. A small increment means a short stack.