Crate Hire

Why would anyone want to hire crates?

Well, this is a question long since asked and answered in the area of food storage and transportation. Traditionally foodstuffs were moved around the country in cardboard containers of various sizes and construction. The advantages of this system are that it is a relatively inexpensive transport and storage medium, it doesn’t have to be returned and is readily disposable.

The disadvantages of using cardboard boxes are they are easily crushed, will absorb fluids which could lead to tearing or other damage and in today’s economic climate one must consider the cost and carbon footprint implications when disposing or re-cycling the box or container.

Why use PPS for Crate Hire

The alternative to one-way trip cardboard boxes (especially within the food industry) is a re-usable plastic crate and crate hire. What are the advantages of a plastic box over a cardboard box of similar dimensions?

• Strength and rigidity – will not crush under standard loading.
• Non-absorbent – will not absorb any leaking fluids.
• Hygienic – can be efficiently cleaned and sterilized.
• Dimensional stability – no dimensional variation which may be useful for integrating into automated systems.
• Life cycle – depending on how it is handled a plastic crate can be used, not indefinitely, but certainly it will be multi-use.

The only significant disadvantage of a plastic crate versus a cardboard box is the price differential. A plastic crate will in most instances be more expensive than a similarly dimensioned cardboard box.

So, it is clear plastic crates must be re-used to be cost-effective. What this means in effect is that a supplier of goods must not only send out those goods in a plastic crate, but importantly retrieve that crate from the end-user. There are emotive issues here – end-users will often see “packaging” (in our case a plastic crate) as having been paid for when the goods were purchased and therefore he owns it and need not return it.

We know however, from our argument above that a plastic crate model only works if the crate is returned and re-used repeatedly.

The answer, quite simply, is for a user to hire crates instead of buying them outright. PPS Equipment Management Ltd provides such a service. The Midlands-based company has a fleet of plastic crates readily available for crate hire, on long- medium- or short-term contracts. PPS also offers its “full service option” whereby in addition to crate hire, will manage crates on behalf of clients, keep track of their location by means of their own online asset tracking system “Enable”, they will arrange collection of used crates at third party locations, and return them to one of their wash sites where the crates are washed to ISO standards before being returned to the crate hire pool.