Plastic crates and bulk bins in Missouri

Two assembly plants, one footprint

Ford builds vehicles at Kansas City Assembly in Claycomo, northeast of Kansas City, and GM builds at Wentzville Assembly, west of St. Louis. Each sits at an end of I-70, and the parts suppliers around them run the automotive bulk footprint: 48x45 inches, which ORBIS describes as the AIAG standard for its BulkPak line.

That footprint comes in many heights. ORBIS lists 17 versions of its 48x45 BulkPak from about 19 to 50 inches tall, rated about 1,500 to 2,000 lb. Most suppliers want two drop doors on the long side, so a line worker can reach the bottom layer without tipping the box, and a lid that keeps dust off painted or machined parts.

Line-side boxes and dunnage

Not every part rides in a bulk box. Fasteners, clips, sensors and small brackets go into hand-held euro containers sized in millimeters, usually 600x400 or 400x300, so several fit neatly on one pallet. These are light enough to carry, stack in columns on flow racks, and slide down roller lanes to the operator.

Fragile or class-A surface parts need dunnage: cell dividers, foam, or hanging bags shaped to the part. Dunnage is specific to one part number, so a supplier changing programs often ends up with empty collapsibles that are perfectly good and dunnage that isn't. We quote both, and we buy surplus shells.

Racks, conveyors and the rest of the system

A container is only half the system. The other half is the rack, the conveyor, the flow lane, the tugger cart and the trailer it rides in. Suppliers around Claycomo and Wentzville sometimes buy a box that matches the spec on paper, then find it overhangs a rack beam or rubs a guide rail on a cart.

Before ordering, measure the rack depth and beam height, the clear width of any flow lane, and the deck of the tugger or cart. Note whether the plant uses a picture-frame base, which rides smoothly on rollers, or runners, which suit forklifts and floor storage. Our guide to 48x40 versus 48x45 explains why five inches matter.

What Missouri operations order

Poultry, pork and row crops

Missouri produced 284.2 million broilers and 14.7 million turkeys in 2025 and had 3.3 million hogs on December 1, 2025, per USDA NASS. It also has about 85,500 farms on 26.6 million acres and 3.85 million cattle. Soybeans and corn led 2025 crops at about $2.88 billion and $2.81 billion, and rice added about $134 million.

Poultry plants want lugs and crates that nest when empty and stack firmly when full, in colors that separate raw from cooked. Any used container going near food needs a document check; we never call one food-grade, so ask the maker's papers and tell us what it held.

River ports and the interstate grid

The Port of St. Louis and East St. Louis ranked 21st among US ports by 2023 total trade, and the New Bourbon Port Authority, downriver, ranked 40th. Barges carry grain and bulk cargo; our containers travel by truck on the roads that meet in St. Louis and Kansas City.

I-70 links those two cities across the middle of the state. I-44 runs southwest from St. Louis to Springfield and Joplin, I-55 heads south along the Mississippi to the Bootheel, and I-35 and I-29 cross Kansas City. A supplier near Claycomo shipping empties back to a parts plant in Michigan or Ohio is looking at a return leg well past 500 miles, the distance a Logistics Management column cites as the point where return freight becomes a major cost. That's where collapsibles pay. A few pallets of totes ship LTL; bins and collapsibles go by truckload.

Selling surplus from Missouri

We buy reusable 48x45 collapsibles, bins and totes in volume, including program leftovers without dunnage. Send counts, height, door configuration, grade, location and what they carried. See sell collapsibles.