Logistics and transportation management has seen a remarkable surge in technology over the past few years.
Those advancements have digitalized many once highly manual processes and dramatically streamlined how capacity is sourced, freight and trucks are matched, shipments booked and tracked, and transactions completed.
Yet there remain other areas of the supply chain that are ripe for reinvention through technology. One of those that has tremendous promise is the buying and selling of pallets. It’s a part of the logistics landscape that’s basically been untouched by disruptive, yet familiar collaborative technology.
Last year Bettaway joined with 13 of the leading pallet suppliers in the US to launch PalletTrader, the industry’s first neutral, independent collaborative e-commerce marketplace built for the digital buying and selling of “white wood” pallets, of which there are some 500 million in circulation throughout the US.
Prior to this, there has been no broad ability or common digital platform providing members of the pallet trade with the online reach and automation typical of e-commerce marketplaces. Buyers were strictly relegated to regions and by legacy or local contacts. Business was done mostly by phone, fax and email. It was an overlooked and ignored category.
Now, pallet suppliers and supply chain managers have access to common digital tools to drive accuracy and efficiency, as well as expanded sourcing and sales opportunity. The net result is a reinvented market that is more efficient, responds faster and more accurately to user needs and enables lower cost of sales.