Used plastic pallets in Savannah

Savannah by county

Savannah spans 3 counties (Bryan, Chatham, Effingham). In the counties where the Bureau of Labor Statistics can publish, private employers had 6,384 warehousing and storage jobs in 2025, 3.6% of local private jobs.

Savannah against Georgia

The metro's disclosed-county total set beside the state's whole count, so the two can be read together.

ZIPs with the most warehouses

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 5 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 92 between them. 31407 (Port Wentworth) leads with 31, 34% of the listed total.

• 31407 Port Wentworth: 31 warehousing establishments, 1.1 times 31408.
• 31408 Savannah: 29 warehousing establishments, 94% of the count in 31407.
• 31326 Rincon: 14 warehousing establishments, 45% of the count in 31407.
• 31405 Savannah: 9 warehousing establishments, 29% of the count in 31407.
• 31322 Pooler: 9 warehousing establishments, 29% of the count in 31407.

What the ratios say

The BLS leaves out counties where one employer would show through, so the 6,384 jobs counted for Savannah may understate the metro.

• Savannah ranks 42nd of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 6,384 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 3 counties, that is 2,128 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• Chatham County holds 82% of the metro's jobs and Bryan County 16%; the gap between them is 4,233 jobs.
• 31407 has 31 warehousing establishments, 3.4 times as many as 31322 (9) at the other end of the list.
• Georgia has 84,730 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Savannah are 7.5% of the state.
• Warehousing is 3.6% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• One Interstate in the data serves the metro, and it carries 127,866 warehousing jobs along the route.
• The metros closest in size are Minneapolis-St. Paul (6,599, 215 above) and Baltimore (6,377, 7 below).
• The top three ZIPs, 31407, 31408, 31326, hold 74 of the 92 establishments in the ZIP list, or 80%.
• The ZIP list spans 4 towns, led by Savannah (38) and Port Wentworth (31).
• The ZIP list averages 18.4 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 5 ZIPs, and the quietest, 31322 Pooler, has 9.
• Of the 3 counties in the metro, the BLS discloses 3 for warehousing, which together account for 6,384 of the 6,384 jobs counted.
• Reaching the median metro would take 2.1 times the disclosed warehousing jobs Savannah has now.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 27 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across 3 counties.

Where Savannah ranks

Savannah and the 41 metros above it hold 95% of the 1,116,650 warehousing jobs across the 60 metros in the data. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368.

Corridors through Savannah

Interstate 95 is the Interstate in our data that serves Savannah.

Other metros nearby

Metros that share a corridor with Savannah, and the other metros in Georgia, with their disclosed warehousing jobs.

The ladder around Savannah

Metros ranked by disclosed warehousing jobs: Savannah with the two above it and the two below.

Savannah's pallet-using trades

Against the national share of employment, warehousing and storage is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Savannah, at 2.5x. Warehouses with automated storage need a consistent size for conveyors and a rack rating they can read.

• Warehousing and storage: 6,384 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.3% of the 1,901,976 across the US, or 1.00 for every warehousing job here.
• Food manufacturing: 1,386 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.1% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 0.22 for every warehousing job here.

Training the dock crew

• Show new staff three pallets: one acceptable, one marginal, one rejected.
• Agree on words for faults, such as crack, gouge, bow and dish, and use them.
• Tell people to stop and ask when a pallet carries any mark they do not recognise.
• Remind drivers to enter pockets squarely, since angled entry splits the pocket wall.
• Walk the dock together once a month and compare notes.

Questions to put to any seller

• Where did these pallets work, and what did they carry?
• How were they sorted, and who walked the lot?
• Are any welded, riveted or fitted with replacement parts?
• Can the maker's plate be photographed on several pallets?
• Will the description be sent in writing before payment is discussed?

What to send for a Savannah lot

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in, one maker
• Grade: used and clean with a stated rating
• Dock ZIP, for example 31407 or 31408
• Quantity band

Keep reading