PALLETS: FRONT AND CENTER
damaged products,” he says. “Additionally, sensors can easily read their standard sizes and smooth surfaces, leading to operational efficiencies throughout the supply chain.” Ultimately, because of their litany of benefits, ORBIS’s reusable plastic pallets are seeing a sustained surge in interest. “More and more companies today recognize that reusable plastic pallets are an economic, environmental, and efficient alternative to wooden pallets or skids,” Del Vecchio says. PALLETTRADER DEBUTS AS THE WORLD’S FIRST ONLINE PALLET MARKETPLACE The idea made so much sense that John Vaccaro couldn’t believe someone else hadn’t already thought of it. When Vaccaro, president of New Jersey-based Bettaway Supply Chain Services, first began to develop the project three years ago, he told hardly anyone, worried that the idea would leak and someone would get there first. The idea was PalletTrader, the world’s first online pallet marketplace. Influenced by everything from eBay and Etsy to LinkedIn and the DAT Load Board, PalletTrader is a sophisticated yet user-friendly e-commerce solution designed for everyone associated with the buying and selling of pallets.
ORBIS provides solutions, services, and expertise to create an effective reusable packaging program to meet supply chain needs. Its reusable plastic pallets allow for seamless integration with both manual and automated materials handling equipment.
A full-service provider, ORBIS specializes in offering the solutions, services, and expertise to create an effective and sustainable reusable packaging program that meets the unique needs of supply chains. MEETING DIVERSE REQUIREMENTS ORBIS provides a comprehensive selection of styles and footprints, resulting in the largest offering of plastic pallets in the industry, according to Del Vecchio. The Wisconsin-based company’s pallets are manufactured to meet diverse application requirements, and ORBIS offers many different material features including X-ray compatibility, and metal detection, and ocean-bound plastic. They are also FDA- compliant and FM-approved. “The all-plastic construction of reusable pallets makes them hygienic and easy to clean,” Del Vecchio says. “This is especially important for industries such as food and beverages and pharmaceuticals where maintaining cleanliness in production is imperative. “Certain reusable pallets are also manufactured in FDA-compliant plastic, adding to their hygienic benefits,” he adds. One of ORBIS’s newest pallets, the
40 x 48 Odyssey, provides stability and durability with approximately 36 times the lifespan of a whitewood stringer pallet. In testing from the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design, the Odyssey plastic pallet completed 400 cycles without failure, while the wood pallet’s average failure was 11 cycles. ORBIS’s reusable plastic pallets are designed to handle the demands associated with the growing use of automated supply chain processes. Reusable plastic pallets allow for seamless integration with both manual and automated materials handling equipment. “As companies try to meet increased demand, automation will become an even more important tool for scaling their operation as it helps to streamline processes and save on labor costs in a competitive market,” Del Vecchio says. “Reusable pallets provide dimensional consistency and repeatable performance for all types of automated systems including conveyors, AS/RS, eye-readers and more. “Plastic pallets also eliminate the possibility of loose boards, broken boards, or exposed nails that can ultimately lead to automated system downtime as well as
FILLING A GAP Set to launch this summer,
PalletTrader will fill a key gap in the marketplace that had gone unnoticed, but that seems rich with potential, particularly during a time when the pallet market has been so heated. “It provides a new platform for buying and selling pallets where there clearly was a need for one,” Vaccaro says, noting that the “white wood” pallet market for which PalletTrader is designed has some 500 million units in circulation. PalletTrader is not meant to replace anyone or anything. It simply offers a new option for pallet businesses to consider—a true online marketplace for buying and selling pallets. The site will
80 Inbound Logistics • May 2022
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