Services · programme
Pallet management programs
For operations where pallets have quietly become five separate line items across three departments and nobody owns the number.
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In short
A pallet management program consolidates supply, recovery, repair and reporting for an operation with multiple sites or departments. RePallets Ohio runs these across Ohio: scheduled delivery of graded stock, scheduled collection of cores, repair of captive fleets, and a single monthly invoice with per-site reporting.
The usual outcome is not a lower unit price. It is the discovery that the same organisation was buying new pallets at one site and paying to dispose of them at another.
The problem these programmes solve
In a multi-site operation, pallet cost fragments. Procurement buys them. Operations handles them. Facilities disposes of them. Finance sees three unrelated line items and nobody sees the whole number.
What we find, repeatedly, when we map an account:
- One site paying a waste hauler for pallet disposal while another buys new stock forty miles away
- Grade A pallets bought for one-way outbound shipping that never comes back
- ISPM-15 treated stock used on purely domestic lanes
- Four suppliers, four price points, no consolidated volume leverage
- Damaged pallets discarded because no repair route exists
None of that is incompetence. It is what happens when an item is too cheap individually to attract attention and too numerous to ignore in aggregate.
What a programme includes
- Baseline audit. We map every site: volumes in, volumes out, sizes, grades, current suppliers, current disposal costs.
- Specification review. Right grade for the right lane. Usually the single largest saving.
- Scheduled supply. Agreed cadence per site, so nobody expedites.
- Scheduled recovery. Cores collected on the same routes wherever geography permits.
- Repair loop. Captive fleet units repaired and returned rather than replaced.
- Single point of contact. One person who knows your account, reachable by email.
- Consolidated reporting. Per site and total: units, spend, recovery value, diversion tonnage, CO₂e avoided.
- One invoice. Monthly, itemised by site.
Reporting that survives an ESG review
Programme customers get quarterly sustainability reporting drawn from actual collection and delivery records, not estimates: tonnage diverted, reuse-repair-grind split, landfill tonnage, and CO₂e avoided calculated with the coefficients published on our methodology page.
We publish the method openly so your sustainability team can check the arithmetic. Numbers that cannot be audited eventually become retractions, and we would rather give you a smaller number you can defend.
Is your operation a candidate?
A programme starts making sense at roughly 500 pallets a week in aggregate, or three or more sites, or any operation currently paying for pallet disposal anywhere.
Below that, straightforward buying and selling is simpler and cheaper for everyone. We will say so rather than sell you a programme you do not need.
What the first ninety days look like
A programme is not a contract followed by silence. The early work is where the value is found.
- Weeks 1–2. Site visits and data collection. Volumes in and out, sizes, grades, current suppliers, current disposal arrangements and costs. Most of the elapsed time is waiting for historic invoices from your side.
- Weeks 3–4. Findings presented per site and in aggregate. This is usually the meeting where somebody discovers one site is buying while another is disposing.
- Weeks 5–8. Specification changes implemented — grade splits by lane, treated stock removed from domestic routes, footprints reviewed. These are the changes that do not require anyone to sign a new agreement.
- Weeks 9–12. Scheduling stabilised, two-way lanes established where geography allows, first consolidated invoice and first reporting pack.
The specification changes usually deliver more than the commercial ones, which is why they come first.
Governance: who owns the number
The underlying problem a programme solves is organisational rather than commercial. Pallet cost fragments across procurement, operations and facilities, and nobody sees a total.
So a programme needs a named owner on your side — one person who receives the reporting and can authorise a specification change. Without that, findings get acknowledged and not implemented.
On our side you get a single point of contact who knows the account, reachable by email, rather than a queue. The same person handles the scheduling, the exceptions and the reporting.
Everything is documented. Grade definitions, agreed cadences, exception handling and the reporting fields are written down at the start, because a programme that lives in a relationship stops working when either party changes staff.
Reference
What a baseline audit typically finds
| Finding | How common | Typical impact |
|---|---|---|
| One grade used across all applications | Very common | Large — 20–30% on the misallocated volume |
| A site paying for disposal while another buys | Common in 3+ site groups | Large — a cost and a forgone credit |
| ISPM-15 stock on domestic lanes | Common | Moderate and immediate |
| No two-way lane where geography allows one | Very common | Large — removes a whole cost category |
| Four or more suppliers, no consolidated volume | Common | Moderate |
| Reactive ordering with expedite charges | Common | Moderate, and invisible until totalled |
| Overhang causing product damage | Occasional | Sometimes larger than the entire pallet spend |
| No damaged-unit repair route | Common | Moderate for captive fleets |
Avoid these
Mistakes we see
Starting with a price negotiation
Unit price is the smallest lever and the one everyone pulls first. Specification and structure move far more, and they move without anyone having to concede anything.
Running a programme without a named owner
Findings that nobody is authorised to act on stay findings. One person with authority over specification is the minimum viable governance.
Measuring only what is easy to measure
Unit price is easy. Disposal cost, expedite charges and product damage from pallet failure are harder and usually larger.
Signing a long lock-in
We work on rolling agreements with a notice period. If a programme stops delivering value you should be able to leave, and knowing that keeps us honest.
Excluding sites because they are small
Small sites are frequently where the worst practices survive, precisely because nobody has looked at them.
Checklist
Work through this before you order
To scope a programme we need
- Site list with rough weekly pallet volumes in and out
- Current suppliers and delivered unit prices
- Current disposal or waste hauling arrangements and cost
- Which lanes involve racking, one-way shipping or export
- Any captive fleet or custom design in use
- Reporting requirements from your sustainability team
- A named owner on your side
Questions
Before you ask us
Do we have to use you for everything?
No. Some programme customers keep a specialist supplier for one niche product and use us for the other ninety percent. We would rather have the ninety than lose it by insisting on exclusivity.
How long does the baseline audit take?
Typically two to four weeks depending on site count, most of which is waiting for historic invoice data from your side. The site visits themselves are quick.
Is there a contract term?
We work on rolling agreements with a notice period rather than multi-year lock-ins. If the programme stops delivering value you should be able to leave.
Can you cover sites outside Ohio?
Our own equipment covers Ohio. For adjacent states we can arrange contract freight for truckload volumes, and we will tell you plainly when a local supplier would serve a distant site better.
What does a programme cost?
There is no separate management fee. The commercial relationship is the supply and recovery of pallets; the audit, reporting and single point of contact come with it. If the numbers do not justify a programme we say so.
Can we start with one site?
Yes, and it is often the sensible way in. Prove the approach at one site, then extend. The findings at the first site usually apply at the others anyway.
What reporting do we get?
Per site and in aggregate: units, spend, recovery value, diversion tonnage, the reuse-repair-grind split, landfill tonnage and estimated CO2e avoided, using coefficients we publish openly.
Do we have to use you exclusively?
No. Some programme customers keep a specialist supplier for one niche product and use us for the rest. We would rather have most of the volume than lose it by insisting on all of it.
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