Used plastic pallets in Lancaster

Lancaster's warehousing belt

Count the jobs the BLS can disclose in Lancaster and you reach 6,994 in warehousing and storage for 2025, 3.0% of the metro's private work. The area covers 1 county: Lancaster.

Lancaster against Pennsylvania

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

Where a Lancaster lot lands: the busy ZIPs

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 5 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 33 between them. 17601 (Lancaster) leads with 14, 42% of the listed total.

• 17601 Lancaster: 14 warehousing establishments, 2.0 times 17022.
• 17022 Elizabethtown: 7 warehousing establishments, 50% of the count in 17601.
• 17554 Mountville: 5 warehousing establishments, 36% of the count in 17601.
• 17517 Denver: 4 warehousing establishments, 29% of the count in 17601.
• 17557 New Holland: 3 warehousing establishments, 21% of the count in 17601.

What the ratios say

Hidden counties mean Lancaster's figure of 6,994 is the disclosed part of its warehousing work, not a ceiling.

• Lancaster ranks 39th of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 6,994 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 1 county, that is 6,994 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• 17601 has 14 warehousing establishments, 4.7 times as many as 17557 (3) at the other end of the list.
• Pennsylvania has 123,481 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Lancaster are 5.7% of the state.
• Warehousing is 3.0% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• The metros closest in size are Portland (8,157, 1,163 above) and Salt Lake City (6,623, 371 below).
• The top three ZIPs, 17601, 17022, 17554, hold 26 of the 33 establishments in the ZIP list, or 79%.
• The ZIP list spans 5 towns, led by Lancaster (14) and Elizabethtown (7).
• The ZIP list averages 6.6 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 5 ZIPs, and the quietest, 17557 New Holland, has 3.
• Reaching the median metro would take 2.0 times the disclosed warehousing jobs Lancaster has now.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 32 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across the one county.

Where Lancaster ranks

Lancaster and the 38 metros above it hold 93% of the 1,116,650 warehousing jobs across the 60 metros in the data. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368.

The roads a lot travels in Lancaster

No Interstate corridor in our data lists Lancaster, so the county and ZIP figures carry this page.

The ladder around Lancaster

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

Local industries that use pallets

Against the national share of employment, dairy product manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Lancaster, at 4.5x. Dairy runs cold and wet, so ask about cold-room use and drainage in the deck.

• Dairy product manufacturing: 1,348 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.8% of the 168,222 across the US, or 0.19 for every warehousing job here.
• Food manufacturing: 8,626 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.5% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 1.23 for every warehousing job here.
• Warehousing and storage: 6,994 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.4% of the 1,901,976 across the US, or 1.00 for every warehousing job here.
• Grocery and related product wholesale: 2,431 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.3% of the 829,364 across the US, or 0.35 for every warehousing job here.
• Meat and poultry processing: 1,426 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.3% of the 556,647 across the US, or 0.20 for every warehousing job here.

Labelling stacks

• Put a card on each stack with footprint, grade and the date it was sorted.
• Use one colour of tape for repaired pallets and another for held ones.
• Keep labels at fork-truck eye level, not on the lowest pallet.
• Update the card when a pallet is removed, so the count stays true.
• Retire old cards instead of writing over them.

What to write down about a lot

• Footprint in both units, with the readings you took rather than the label.
• Number of stacks, pallets per stack and any odd stacks left over.
• Makers and model numbers seen on plates or moulded into the ribs.
• Count of repaired, mismatched or cracked pieces, and where each sits.
• Marks, colours and any smell, with a note on who confirmed each.

Paperwork to keep

• The written lot description and the date it was sent.
• Your own count, signed and dated by whoever received the load.
• Photographs of stacks, plates and any marks, stored with the order number.
• The maker's papers for resin, colour or rating, where the job needs them.
• A line naming who agreed to which exceptions, so a later dispute has a record.

Requesting a lot for Lancaster

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in or 56 x 44 in
• Grade: like new
• Dock ZIP, for example 17601 or 17022
• Quantity band

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