Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Texas

Texas, by road

Texas is a place where houston is the Gulf port, Laredo is the biggest land crossing from Mexico, and Dallas-Fort Worth sits between them on I-35 and I-45. Pallets here follow I-35, I-10, I-45, I-20 and I-30, and the distance they travel empty is the cost a nestable cuts.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Dallas (44,657), Harris (23,802) and Tarrant (19,462), which is 50.1 percent of the state's 175,579. It shares a land border with New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Texas held 254 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Dallas County has 44,657 warehousing jobs, 25.4 percent of Texas's 175,579, the most in the state.
• Harris County has 23,802 warehousing jobs, 13.6 percent of Texas's 175,579, 20,855 fewer than Dallas County.
• Tarrant County has 19,462 warehousing jobs, 11.1 percent of Texas's 175,579, 25,195 fewer than Dallas County.
• Warehousing and storage employs 175,579 people in Texas, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 112,088 people in Texas, 0.64 for every warehousing job.
• Texas holds 9.23 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 11, spread over 2,174 establishments averaging 81 jobs each.
• Dallas-Fort Worth accounts for 82,593 warehousing jobs, 47.0 percent of Texas's.
• Houston accounts for 33,785 warehousing jobs, 19.2 percent of Texas's.
• Laredo accounts for 2,014 warehousing jobs, 1.1 percent of Texas's.
• San Antonio accounts for 16,751 warehousing jobs, 9.5 percent of Texas's.
• Austin accounts for 5,657 warehousing jobs, 3.2 percent of Texas's.
• New Mexico has 5,725 warehousing jobs, 0.03 times the 175,579 in Texas.
• Oklahoma has 19,669 warehousing jobs, 0.11 times the 175,579 in Texas.
• Arkansas has 15,624 warehousing jobs, 0.09 times the 175,579 in Texas.
• Louisiana has 15,312 warehousing jobs, 0.09 times the 175,579 in Texas.

Who ships pallets here

In Texas, warehousing and storage employs 175,579. Racks decide the order of questions: a pallet that sits on beams needs a racking load that matches the span, and a floor-stacked pallet needs a static load that matches the bottom of the stack. It tends to lean on rackable where the pallet lives on beams, stackable for block stacking, nestable for the empties that go back, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about the racking load, and the beam span it was rated on.

Warehousing and storage is the trade where Texas is most concentrated, at 1 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 2,174 warehouse establishments in Texas sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 1,739,200 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 Texas with their own page: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, San Antonio and Austin.

Words on this page

Drayage

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

Gross cubic feet

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

QCEW

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

RFID tag

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

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.

Pallet jack

A hand or powered truck with two forks, used to move a pallet short distances.

Slip sheet

A thin sheet of plastic or fibreboard used under a load in place of a pallet, handled by a push-pull attachment.

Stretch wrap

Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.

HDPE

High-density polyethylene, a tough resin used in many plastic pallets, valued for strength against its weight.