1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142 
Pallet loss is a burning issue • •
Page 39
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
?ALLET WASTAGE costs inlustry millions of pounds a tear; it's a burning issue! I saw dozen going up in smoke on I Jubilee bonfire. As I write a 'ireman's picket near my iome is keeping warm with a ionfire fed by a standard wood pallet.
Concern about the poor 2ontrol of pallets led nearly 300 people to attend a conference in London last week arranged by the Committee for Materials Handling (Management and Technology) of the Department of Industry.
The delegates, including many high-level distribution managers, were discussing a well researched report: Materials Handling: Pallet Usage and Wastage (HMSO £2 net). The report estimates that 25 to 30 million pallets are in use in this country. The cost of the pallets that "go missing", or which are scrapped unnecessarily, burdens distribution costs by many millions of pounds a year.
Take the three million "lost" pallets in 1975, for example. At around £3 a time the material cost alone comes to E9m, to which must be added several more millions in abortive inquiries by transport and warehouse staffs, • not excluding road hauliers and drivers involved.
Pallets loss in 1975 could be said to be equivalent to at least 450 large capacity lorries at £20,000 a time! That huge loss is truly enough to inspire effective action by all concerned in distribution.
One of the conference speakers, M. J. Carpenter, of the National Materials Handling Centre, confessed to having burned a pallet he found on a beach when walking with his family on a cold day. A considerable number of pallets had been slung overboard a vessel. Mr Carpenter also reported a new use for pallets — as a builder's scaffold frame.
An Irish delegate said there were so many pallets washing around in the Irish Sea that he could almost have walked to England on them!
Several delegates from large companies reported an annual loss rate for pallets of more than 50 per cent. Mr Carpenter said he feared the experience of particular companies was even worse than this.
A delegate from Paisley reckoned that Scottish firms had a rough deal with palletisation. He dispatched 100,000 pallets a year but only had returned half of his own pallets with the balance made up of other companies'. "I am selling the ones not identified, as I think I am entitled to do. Does that make me a pallet pirate?"
The cost of returning pallets to Paisley from England was said to be 50p per pallet, and when there were hiccups in the system the outlying areas of the country could be starved of desper ately needed pallets. An Irish delegate re marked that it was cheaper to send empty pallets from IR land to America than it was to return them to England!
Delegates heard about a number of unscrupulous firms who collected "unwanted" pallets from all kinds of premises, often from lorry drivers and warehousemen, and obtensibly to repair the pallets. These firms pay as little as 50p for a pallet and re-sell them for £1.50 without apparent difficulty.
One enterprising pirate firm is not averse to make custom build pallets from those acquired dubiously: it is an easy task to cut down a large pallet into something smaller.
If the loss of pallets is verging on a national scandal reflecting little credit on transport and distribution it is astonishing that some notorious cases have not ended up in the courts with convictions for the perpetrators. In fact, there was one successful prosecution at Nottingham recently in a case lasting 12 days. Two earlier prosecutions were unsuccessful because defending counsel were able to produce evidence that the firms alleging theft of their marked pallets themselves possessed other companies' pallets on their own premises.
There are estimated to be 161 pallet manufacturers in the UK, and as yet no British Standard covering pallet performance. One problem arising because some companies try to economise on pallet wastage by using cheap non-returnable pallets is that these flimsy platforms tend to get mixed up with more robust pallets.
The practical problems of firms receiving numerous pallets is that huge piles steadily accumulate in ti yard. When visiting 4riVE deliver palletised loads wi instructions to take hor pallets on a "one for on basis, the drivers are — r unnaturally — concerned collect the requisite number pallets of the right size, gardless of ownership mai and, sometimes, of the s viceability of the pallets c lected. Hence the problem pallet control for the (pr( ably) minority of compan who try hard to control pa movements by efficient cumentation.
While it would be Utopia] hope that all firms receiv pallets would both repair faulty ones and segreg pallet heaps where the owi ship can be identified, tt seems no reason why r, hauliers should not play increasing role in acting agents for large compai and for unofficial pallet pi which circumstances h brought into being.
But even the GKN/C pallet hiring system, v clearly identifiable pall tends in practice to get m up with the chaotic pallet change system now operat a conference delegate refe to such pallets being use imported butter at Liver docks, only to be told 1 GKN/Chep spokesman the pallets would have I used quite legitimately f load to the docks and I would he lying around the Slightly less than half c pallets used in the UK are x 48in (1000 x 1200mm) i way entry type — the only available on rental. Of other 16 pallet sizes list( the report 36in x 48in ( prises only 6 per cent Extended depot covera rental firms to avoid c, return loads over long tances was mooted, but first step in the cost-cu campaign the Departme Industry is likely to together leading pallet us devise more effective cc procedures and co-oper between senders, recip and road hauliers.
• John 13