A national bid to tackle long-running pallet issues is underway at the Australian Logistics Council (ALC).
Fresh from signing up the country’s two largest pallet providers, Chep and Loscam, the council has formed a working group and is calling publically for its members to participate.
By Rob McKay | August 1, 2012
A national bid to tackle long-running pallet issues is underway at the Australian Logistics Council (ALC).
Fresh from signing up the country’s two largest pallet providers, Chep and Loscam, the council has formed a working group and is calling publically for its members to participate.
“I certainly don’t underestimate the magnitude of the task we’ve taken on but, if we didn’t do it, who would?” ALC Managing Director Michael Kilgariff says, adding that, “to some degree, the hardest step in this journey will be the first one”.
He sees working group developing and implementing “a process guideline for dispute resolution for pallet transactions across the supply chain”.
“It will also be the place where the industry can go to obtain information about the existing processes, requirements and the ‘guidelines’ stakeholders have in place regarding the use of pallets in the supply chain,” Kilgariff says.
He notes that a nationally consistent approach to the “development, promotion and implementation of best practice for the use of pallets” is missing but believes industry self-regulation should be the sought before there is concrete government involvement.
Industry groups including the Victorian Transport Association (VTA) have long sought reform on pallet demurrage regimes, with critics charging that they have become a revenue stream for larger players such as major retailers, under which transport operators bear an unfair financial load.
Federal small business ministers and the Victorian Office of the Small Business Commissioner have been approached and a draft code of conduct drawn up in Victoria but progress towards general acceptance of it has stalled recently.
Kilgariff says he recognises the VTA’s work to advance the issue, saying that its “considerable work on pallets has provided a strong platform for the ALC to take this issue forward from a national perspective”.
Kilgariff sees discussion of the draft code of conduct as a starting point for the working group, the deliberations for which would be made public and would be open to some industry input from outside the ALC membership, including through secondment by the ALC board.
“It will be conducted in an open and transparent manner,” Kilgariff says.
He believes this transparency will help placate fears that deliberations will be controlled by the ALC’s major retailer members.
“They will be participating in the working group, that’s for sure, but given that we’ve established this working group, the focus is on the ALC to try and achieve some tangible outcomes that don’t benefit one particular party in the supply chain,” Kilgariff says.
Other supply chain council members will also provide balance.
Another early move will see the ALC write to state small business ministers and Federal minister Brendan O’Connor to advise of the working group’s formation and development.
Loscam and Chep have voiced their support for the initiative, with Chep Australia & NZ President Phillip Austin looking for “a best practice model to bring increased clarity and efficiency to the pallet hire process” and Loscam Regional Director Daniel Bunnett hoping the working group will “will help drive greater collaboration and transparency across the industry and also deliver greater standardisation and understanding along the entire supply chain”.
