Bulk containers along Interstate 75

I-75 runs 1,786 miles from the Miami area to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and between Detroit and Atlanta it is the main road of the auto supply chain. Plants in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee ship parts north and south along it every day, and most of those parts travel in returnable containers.

In the metros on the route, motor vehicle parts manufacturing had 77,073 jobs in 2025 in the counties BLS discloses, 2.1 times the national share. Atlanta (49,050 warehousing jobs) and Detroit (30,083) are the big distribution ends.

Distance is what this corridor means for a container. A loop from Detroit to Knoxville is a day each way, and the trip back with empties costs nearly as much as the trip out. On a 48 x 40 x 32 in collapsible, 240 folded fit the trailer against 90 assembled, so the empties for more than two trucks come home in one.

Between those ends it passes Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Lexington, Knoxville and Chattanooga. In Ohio, Honda and its suppliers sit near it; in Georgia, carpet mills cluster around Dalton, and their yarn and backing move between plants in bulk.

Along I-75 the typical need is a fleet of collapsibles for a parts loop between a supplier in Ohio, Kentucky or Tennessee and an assembly plant in Michigan or the South. The buyer wants the folded height, the trailer count both ways and the footprint the customer names. Carpet mills around Dalton need heavy bins for yarn and backing.

On the long legs, Michigan to Tennessee or Georgia, a loop needs more containers than a short Detroit one: some are being filled, some are on the road and some wait at the plant for the trip back. Count the days a container spends in each place and size the fleet from that cycle, then add a margin for the ones out for repair.