It’s been over six years since RPS was first approached by Imerys Minerals, a business which specialises in the production of industrial minerals, for pallet management advice.
Since then, we’ve been continuously thinking of innovative ways to reduce cost and environmental impact through an effective pallet strategy, in particular for its Beverley site near York and Par site in Cornwall.
Because this project has been so successful, we wanted to share it with you all step by step to demonstrate how you could be saving your business money through the correct management of pallets.
Step 1
Evaluate the pallet type…
A lot of people think pallets are straight forward, but they’re not. You’d be surprised at how many different sizes and specifications of pallets there are and each with various purposes.
We sat down with Steve Smith, Imerys’ Sales and Operations Manager, to find out more about the product they were distributing and the protection it needs.
Once we had done this, we could identify the appropriate pallet specification for the job.
By doing this we are saving Imerys money, through ensuring the product is not damaged during distribution and by maximising deliveries so fewer journeys need to be made. It’s a win win for your bottom line and carbon footprint.
Step 2
Set up pallet collections…
If you had thousands of pounds waiting for collection, you’d collect it (surely!). So why not collect your pallets from the customers you distribute your product to?
With Imerys’ permission we spoke with each and every customer to arrange site collections.
As well as Imerys saving lots of money, the customer no longer has to worry about health and safety issues with stacks of pallets in their yard, they also don’t have to worry about disposal or hiring wood skips to recycle pallets. Happy days!
Step 3
Sort, inspect, and repair…
Just like the good old days… make do and mend. There’s much more life in pallets than you’d think.
Once collecting Imerys’ pallets from its customers, the RPS team identified which pallets could be reused. Once identified, we fix them and send them back to Imerys to be used once again. RPS co-ordinates the entire process too so your business does not need to use valuable effort to manage the collection, repair and return scheme.
As I’m sure you can imagine, Imerys has saved thousands of pounds because of this, as they no longer need to spend money on replacing with new pallets.
Step 4
Cut out tax payments… legally of course!
For once the tax man is on our side and we’re fully prepared to take advantage.
When you can no longer reuse your pallets and you need more, instead of supplying you with new ones, RPS will provide reconditioned pallets, which actually means you are exempt from packaging waste tax.
We have introduced this to Imerys and it’s continuing to reduce its pallet spend whilst embracing environmental sustainability.
Step 5
Enjoy the success…
Although we help make implementing new processes into your business easy, change is always going to take a little time to adapt to. Therefore we believe in celebrating the successful results.
In 2014 RPS supplied over 23,000 recovered or reconditioned pallets to Imerys’ Beverley and Par sites, we also reduced its new packaging waste by a huge 450te.
Steve Smith, Imerys’ UK Sales and Operations Manager said: “With a simple but effective process the pallets are refurbished to full working order so that RPS can return the pallets to Imerys ready to be reused. RPS delivers pallet loads regularly, on time and in full. They also ensure that our pallet requirements are met each week in order for us to proficiently supply our customers.”
If you’d like to find out how we can help you, please call 01642 465556
