These versatile units are collapsible which leads to space saving when not in use, as well as being cost effective when it comes to transporting the units. There are multiple uses for these cages across a broad range of industries – e.g. automotive, engineering, foodstuffs and packaging.

PPS offers these mainly with standard dimensions of 1200×1000x1000mm although custom products can be offered, subject to volume. The construction is of heavy duty electro zinc plate finish which is long-lasting, robust and with a standard half-hinged gate access.

Re-usable and return packaging is the theme promoted by PPS who will also offer to manage client’s returnable transit packaging as one of its key services.

These wire mesh containers are being supplied to leading logistics operations, for warehousing or storage purposes and any application in materials handling where a strong and versatile solution is required.

PPS, based in the Midlands has over the past few years been steadily promoting its green credentials by persuading customers, mainly in the food industry, to convert from using cardboard boxes and packaging to re-usable and returnable plastic crates and boxes.

The company was doing this even before Product Carbon Footprinting (PCF), the method of assessing and measuring greenhouse gas emissions, came to the attention of the general public. Measuring PCF’s along the supply chain allows manufacturers, distributors, retailers and final customer to identify critical spots where greenhouse gas emissions occur and can be reduced.

However the motivation and ultimately the deciding factor in a switch from one-way trip cardboard boxes is that using returnable packaging is cost-effective. In other words it works financially.

Taking this a step further it is only financially viable if the equipment in question – in this case returnable transit equipment is correctly managed and returned for re-use. The traditional mindset of someone receiving goods in whatever form of packaging the goods arrive in then is that this packaging is at best to be thrown away or becomes the property of the receiving party.

As owners as well as managers of a large fleet of returnable transit equipment, in the form of crates, boxes and pallets, PPS cannot afford to have their working assets “lost” in the field. For that reason at the start-up of PPS the management instituted a robust policy of ensuring that anyone handling their equipment takes responsibility for it and they sign a Customers Agreement Form to that effect. In the early days of operations a small number of customers simply “forgot” they had signed this Agreement and lost, misused and in certain cases even sold some of the PPS equipment. The policy of PPS then and now is to vigorously pursue anyone deliberately breaching the terms of the Customer Agreement.

One particular customer PPS worked with towards conversion from cardboard boxes was a large poultry producer in Scotland. This customer had been sending out raw poultry products throughout the UK in cardboard boxes and had been following this practice for some years. PPS proposed the use of a nestable plastic crate having dimensions very close to that of the previously used cardboard box.

The trials were an immediate success on a number of fronts – the plastic crates were more robust than the cardboard boxes and during transport remained rigid whereas it was quite common for the lower levels of cardboard boxes to crush in the event of sudden braking of the transport vehicle. This meant that less of the meat had to be rejected due to spoiling of the carrier medium – i.e. the cardboard box.

An added advantage that arose out of the initial trials, and not one either PPS or the customer had foreseen was that instead of packing the normal 15kgs of meat per cardboard box 19kgs could be loaded into the PPS plastic crate, thus meaning fewer plastic crates were needed to transport the same weight of meat – another contribution towards the reduction of the Product Carbon Footprint.

In this particular example the combination of fewer plastic crates required and no need to dispose of used cardboard boxes, not only improved the PCF but critically resulted in a 12% cost reduction on a single trip basis.

Whilst there is no general rule to follow on direct comparisons, one of the UK’s leading crate manufacturers estimates that a standard plastic nestable crate as used by PPS will, over a five year period complete around 92 return trips. Even at the end of its active life cycle PPS has a use for the crates (and pallets) – these are sold back to a recycling company who grind up the products which can then be used to partly produce new plastic parts.

Another way to examine the advantages of plastic versus one-way trip cardboard boxes is the study carried out that shows that replacing disposable packaging with plastic returnable equipment will often pay for itself after only around 12 trips and generates considerable financial savings for our customers.

A number of potential customers would like to move to RTP but are put off by what seems to be a considerable upfront initial financial outlay. Although long-term it may make considerable financial sense to move to RTP there may not be the capital expenditure budget to meet the need.

This is where PPS steps in – not only will they supply the equipment, but manage it, wash it and repair it on behalf of clients.

Iain McArthur, Director of PPS said “We were promoting the advantages of Product Carbon Footprinting even before we knew the term existed! When we started operations a number of years ago we were aware of environmental issues connected with disposal of cardboard, but we primarily promoted our services based on a cost-efficient financial model. In other words our customers wanted to save money. We feel we now offer the advantage of not only helping customers take some cost out of their businesses, but we promote the feel-good contribution of helping to decrease the carbon footprint”.

Measham, Derbyshire April 2009

Aware of the trend from all business sectors not only to become more cost-effective but to lessen their carbon footprint, PPS answers the need for a food crate that is not only re-usable (in fact some crates within the PPS system have been in continuous use for more than five years) but is also fully recyclable.

It’s a simple system – PPS rents a food crate to the food processor that in turn uses this to package his goods which are sent to the wholesale outlet. This transaction is entered onto Enable, which is the PPS proprietary online asset tracking system. From this information, PPS will arrange collection of used crates which are washed at a PPS location before being re-introduced into the system.

Crate hire is a viable alternative to outright purchase by food processors – why? Renting crates and using a professional company such as PPS to manage them (and their whereabouts) offers a number of advantages such as no need for initial and ongoing capital expenditure, no repair costs involved, no embarrassment or awkward confrontations at customers who have “lost” your equipment.

Plastic crates are more robust than a cardboard equivalent and will hold more products without the risk of collapse or crushing under load. If there is a downside to these plastic crates it is that they are very attractive and so are very easy to “misplace”! And this in another reason to use PPS who will actively manage any crates rented from them on your behalf and take responsibility of retrieving them from your customers.

Hiring plastic crates relieves the headache of firstly finding sufficient capital expenditure to feed the logistics requirements. During peak production periods or spikes, PPS will provide extra crate hire on an ad hoc basis.

PPS has several years experience in crate hire and will work closely with customers and all third parties to ensure smooth movement of crates and trays throughout the supply chain – in the food sector from ambient to chilled to frozen PPS crates are used in the poultry, beef and pork sectors with a substantial new outlet for crate hire into the fish farming industry currently under way.

As well as crate hire and rental, PPS have invested heavily in large scale, state-of-the-art wash lines that allow them to add the extra service of washing and sterilizing crates returned from hire.

At their Midlands location large industrial wash lines continuously wash plastic crates, plastic trays and plastic pallets. Spare wash capacity is sold on the open market.

Crate hire has now become a mature aspect of the PPS operations with hundreds of thousands of crates circulating throughout the UK on short- medium- or long-term rental contracts. The addition of the wash operations in the Midlands around two years ago has given PPS the benefits of an all-round crate hire and equipment management system bringing extensive benefits throughout the supply chain.

Iain McArthur, Managing Director of PPS Equipment Management Ltd added “Our crate hire operations started with a single account at a poultry processor in North Wales around six years ago, although it took almost two years of negotiations to bring the client on board!  At that time we were a bit green when it came to managing a pool of rented crates, but fortunately all ran smoothly from day one. In fact this client saw such an immediate benefit to his business not only in financial terms, but using us to manage the fleet of rental crates freed up a considerable amount of management time and resources, that we were recommended to a sister site that started crate hire with us within weeks of commencement of the original contract.

There is no doubt crate hire is here to stay and PPS is at the forefront of not just crate hire but the consolidation of tray and crate hire into a complete equipment management system.”

Sqn Ldr Andy Flynn was invited as a VIP Guest to a DofE Gold Award presentation ceremony. Sqn Ldr Flynn is the Wing DofE Officer and also the Region DofE Officer for Central & East Region, a dual role which he is finding very rewarding and enjoyable.

Andy is also Operations & Logistics Manager for PPS Equipment Management Ltd at Measham where he is responsible for the smooth running of an industrial wash site. PPS specializes in the management of returnable transit equipment – this largely consists of plastic crates and plastic pallets used within the food industry. Due to the nature of the products being moved around the country, all the plastic crates and pallets must be washed after each use. Andy was instrumental in developing the Enable online asset tracking system used to locate and retrieve used equipment. PPS installed state-of-the-art wash equipment at the Measham site which has recently been awarded ISO 2200:2005 accreditation.

Increased demand for washing facilities has meant that PPS will add an extra shift to its production schedule in January 2009, creating eight new jobs in the area.

For more information see:

SEMIDSATC: Andy Flynn and HRH The Earl of Wessex