Rick LeBlanc is a Canadian supply chain journalist, editor, publisher and researcher specializing in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling, and logistics operations. For more than 30 years, he has covered the evolving role of transport packaging and supply chain systems through industry reporting, interviews, historical research, and technical analysis. Before that, and concurrently, he spent many years in frontline distribution center management, including direct responsibility for pallet and reusable packaging procurement and management.
Rick’s journey in reusable packaging began as a pre-teen in British Columbia during the 1960s, collecting discarded reusable beverage bottles with his brother from the side of the road and loading them into their wagon before returning them for deposit at the grocery store across the street. In those days, the deposit was two cents per bottle, or five cents for a large bottle! That early experience sparked a lifelong interest in reuse systems and operational efficiency. You can hear more about that in this conversation with Tim Debus of RPA.
Fast forward to his early 20s, he was working at a supervisor at a lumber reman plant when it burnt down in the early 1980s. A high school friend lined him up for an interview at a grocery distribution center. Arriving with a lumber grading certificate, he was quickly assigned to supervise reverse logistics operations, including wood pallet repair.
Rick is the founder and publisher of Reusable Packaging News. Since 1992, he has reported on pallets, reusable transport packaging, material handling equipment, warehouse operations, and logistics trends, with a particular focus on practical operational improvement and supply chain efficiency. He is also the founder and news editor at Forkliftrevolution.net, which covers pallets, reusable transport packaging, and supply chain systems.
He has been a regular contributor to Pallet Enterprise Magazine since 1995 and editor of Western Pallet Magazine since 1998. His work has also appeared in trade publications across Canada, the United States, and Europe.
What makes Rick’s perspective distinctive is the combination of long-term operational experience, decades spent covering the packaging and logistics industries from the inside, and his systems-based approach to supply chain challenges. His writing style is direct, practical, and occasionally irreverent, shaped by years spent working in fast-paced distribution environments. He has little patience for overly sanitized corporate messaging that obscures operational realities or slows meaningful progress. He believes that improvements in efficiency, and therefore sustainability, are both urgent and necessary.
Rick’s career in trade journalism began in 1992 while completing MBA research on behalf of the Canadian Pallet Council. During the project, he contacted Ed Brindley, founder of Pallet Enterprise Magazine. Brindley asked whether Rick had ever considered freelance writing. At the time, with four young children and a busy career, he declined. A few years later, after going significantly over budget while building a larger family home, he reconsidered. As Rick recalls, “A few upgrades can escalate quickly.” He called Brindley back and asked him if the offer still stood. That conversation launched a freelance journalism career that has now spanned more than three decades.
Over the years, Rick has written thousands of articles and co-authored two books: Pallets A North American Perspective and Pallets and Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922 – 1945. In recent years, he has also focused extensively on the history of palletized handling, reusable transport packaging, and warehouse systems through archival research and long-form historical writing. He is currently working on a white paper related to cost-justification in multi-stakeholder supply chains, and additional volumes in the Pallets & Progress series, including a collected history of Palletizer Magazine (1944-1945), which should be published in 2026, and a history of pallets and palletization, 1946-1990, to be published in 2027. He is also working on a history of pallet industry pioneer stories.
Rick holds an Executive MBA from Simon Fraser University and is an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Unit Load Design. He has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences and industry events, including programs hosted by the Michigan State University School of Packaging, CWPCA, WPA, and WorkSafeBC.
You can contact Rick at leblanc.richard@gmail.com
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