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The Plastic Pallets that Deliver True Cost Savings
As early as 1969, the founders of PDQ PLASTICS INC. recognized the potential cost savings and operational advantages of a "permanent" plastic pallet. The company introduced a plastic pallet into the marketplace (computer designed) that had an initial cost ten times that of a wooden pallet, and substantially more than other plastic pallets that were being introduced at about the same time. This was a tough business choice, but one that was based on the rock-solid notion that a pallet should be manufactured to engender the design elements specifically intended to reduce the users cost per trip. And this was 33 years ago.
As recently as ten years ago, the primary emphasis of most pallet selection processes was still on the cost per pallet. That emphasis has been slowly shifting to the analysis and control of cost per trip. Planning beyond the immediate purchase price of a pallet has become essential. Often the cost of an expendable pallet is built into the overall cost assigned to the product the pallet is carrying. The ratio of the cost of the product to the cost of the pallet is sighted as the basis for an acceptable and necessary expense of doing business. The introduction of a pallet that will provide multiple trips over the long haul takes the pallet out of the expense column and buts it into the assets column. Return on the initial investment is not only rapid, but continues to pay dividends long term. The notion of the pallet as a cost of doing business is...