The U.S. grocery industry has a love-hate relationship with wood pallets. The love has to do with how much it depends on these things to get products through its supply chain. The hate is expressed when pallet damage causes product damage. Bruce Scholnick, president of the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association (NWPCA), believes a solution will be available by the end of this year.

It will take the form of an industry-wide pallet supplier management system. The program will be directed by a not-for-profit entity, giving pallet owners a cost-effective advantage at the outset. It will be governed by a board of directors comprised of pallet purchasers and providers. Pallet quality will be guaranteed through rigorous and continuous third-party inspections by qualified inspection agencies.

Pallet movement will be managed by a secure closed-loop logistic tracking system operated by NWPCA in cooperation with pallet suppliers and owners. Each pallet will be a block style and have RFID and bar code identification.

“A number of large pallet users have told us they want to move away from stringer pallets,” Scholnick told Modern. “This will be a guaranteed buyback system, so once it’s up and running it will be a nominal cost program funded by its members. We’ll repair the pallets and the pallets will belong to the system. The members will own a fraction of the system.”

This program is being modeled on Europe’s EPAL and the Canadian Pallet Pool (CPC).