You need a good pallet controller to keep track of your pallets.

The role of pallet controller for a carrier is probably the most difficult job in pallet control.  It can be made easier but only if the rest of their company supports them and this is usually best achieved if senior management make it clear that pallet rules and behaviour are non-negotiable.  Here are some of the things a carrier’s pallet controller needs to look out for:

1. Missing transfer on dockets.  Some carriers have hundreds of these every month.  Why is this?  Some are errors by the other party but the majority would be due to a failure of docket management within their own company.
   Drivers should receive a transfer on docket when they pickup.  If they don’t then this is part of the reason but most drivers would receive a transfer docket.  Getting documentation back to the pallet controller can take weeks, especially if sub contract drivers are involved.  Even then they can get lost within the office.
    
2. Missing transfer off dockets.  This is worse than missing transfer on dockets.  One of the biggest causes is drivers not having pallet docket books in their trucks.  It could be argued that they don’t need them if they always leave from one of their depots. This may be the case in the majority of times but on that one occasion when its a pickup from a customer and a direct delivery then the driver has no docket to present at the other end and pallets can be lost.  Where possible it is best to match pickups with deliveries so that all pallets picked up are covered by pallets either exchanged or transferred off the carrier’s account.
3. Loaned Pallets.  Sometimes deals will be made so that the carrier lends pallets to their customers.  This increases the risk of pallet loss and should be avoided if possible.  There will be other times when a truck arrives for a pickup or delivery and finds that the other party does not have a pallet account or will not allow it to be used.  The driver often does not have a suitable document to record this and it can be difficult to recover the pallets later.  Meanwhile the carrier continues to pay daily hire for them.  If loan pallets are not lost then the carrier may have to make a special trip to pick them up.  Getting operations staff to organise a pickup of loaned pallets is easier said than done.  They often have limited capacity and a pallet pickup is not going to rate above a goods pickup. It could be that the other party does have pallets to exchange but the driver may not be able to pick them up, e.g. he has a full load to pick up at the next job or they will get in the way if he is loaded/unloaded from the rear doors.
4. Uninvoiced Transfer Offs.  Many companies will only give you a certain amount of time to transfer pallets on to their account.  In most cases this is in line with the time periods stipulated by CHEP and Loscam.  Where you can come unstuck is where there is a problem with your transfer off and the pallet hire companies do not process it.  They give you fair warning if this happens by sending you emails or you can see these transactions on CHEP’s PortflioPlus web system.   A major reason for uninvoiced transfer offs is where it is a receiver declared account.  This is where the receiver stipulates that only they can notify pallet hire companies of a transfer on to their account.  This sounds like a sound idea and solves the problem of drivers not having transfer books in their truck but where it falls down is when the receiver does not honour their responsibility. If this is not bad enough, some of them say that if they failed to notify your transfer to CHEP or Loscam and you did not identify this problem within a time frame specified by them then it is your fault.  They get your pallets free of charge for ever and the carrier or sender continues to pay hire for ever or until they pay compensation.  Companies who apply these types of policies need to ensure that their behaviour will stand up to legal scrutiny as the potential liability could be a big number. 

More on this topic later.