In line with a recent article reporting on the raid at a pallet recycler holding iGPS pallets, Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS Company, LLC), has confirmed having led law enforcement officials to a cache of its pallets that it says “had been misappropriated by a pallet recycler in Perrysburg, Ohio.” They were found at a warehouse belonging to Pallet World, according to the pallet rental company.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurrence – we have experienced similar issues in other states,” said Al Farrell, VP of Asset Management at iGPS. “But our proprietary technology, which keeps our pallets in constant touch with us, makes it virtually impossible for someone to take our pallets anywhere without our knowing about it.” There was no elaboration in the iGPS release as to what role, if any, tracking technology actually took in this particular recovery operation.
“Just this past December, our technology led law enforcement officials to raid a large California-based pallet theft ring. This action not only uncovered iGPS property, but also pallets owned by a number of other companies as well. It subsequently resulted in the filing of at least ten felony and misdemeanor charges,” added Farrell.
iGPS stresses that its investment in pallet tracking technology is a “big plus for its customers, as the possibility of losing all or part of a shipment to theft or misplacement is dramatically reduced.” The company utilizes RFID tags on all of its pallets, as well as Spider AT GPS tags selectively in an undisclosed amount of its pallets, which can help track missing pallets. GPS tags are typically have been used tactically rather than ubiquitously in pallet pools by organizations such as US Postal Service due to cost, but GPS tags have proven to play a role in finding stray pallets. The effectiveness of RFID solutions in extended supply chains may be limited by the overall infrastructure in place to track pallets.
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