2006-10-20 Intelligent Global Pooling Systems

Laws went into effect 18 months ago that disallow wooden pallets for goods for export to foreign countries that have not been fumigated, kiln dried, or otherwise certified insect-free. On July 5 of this year, the same ban went into effect in the United States

Moore’s company plans to rent some 60 million plastic pallets to its customers. The plastic pallet-rental business is big—$14 billion annually worldwide. There are approximately 1 billion pallets in circulation in the U.S., with 600 million replacement pallets produced annually, 97% of those wood.

Moore tried many things to get the plastic pallets at the price of wood pallets. After some additional work, Moore developed a 48-by-40-inch pallet that weighs 47 lb and racks to 2800 lb. It meets the standards of theGrocery Manufacturers.

Moore says the biggest innovation with iGPS’s pallets is they offer the world’s first RFID-tagged, all-plastic pallet pool. Two RFID tags are molded into two corners of the pallets, along with four barcode labels to accommodate customers that don’t have RFID technology as yet. The company announced in August that it has selected Ryder System Inc., a global company specializing in supply chain, warehousing, and transportation management solutions, as its supply chain logistics partner.

Moore concludes that the plastic pallet industry is on track to eliminate wood pallets, noting, “Plastic pallets have all of the advantages of wood, with none of the disadvantages."