On the necessity of establishing pallet sharing sy

On the necessity of establishing pallet sharing system in China

1. Pallet and pallet standard

1 Pallets

pallets are used to facilitate the loading and unloading, transportation, storage and distribution of goods. They are loading and unloading pads composed of load surfaces that can carry a number of goods and forklift sockets. They are known as "moving ground" and "moving pallet" by the logistics world. During the Pacific War in the 1930s, the US Army first used pallets to improve the efficiency of cargo handling and ensure the supply of logistics materials. Since then, pallets have been widely used all over the world and are considered to be one of the two key innovations in the logistics industry in the 20th century. At present, 80% of the commodity trade in the United States is carried by pallets, and 280million pallets are circulated among enterprises in Europe every year [1]. There are about 100million pallets in China, of which 90% are wooden pallets, and only 8% are recyclable plastic pallets. China's logistics scale is expanding rapidly, and the total number of pallets is also growing at the rate of 20million every year

pallet is the most basic container unit in the logistics industry. With the circulation of products among production enterprises, logistics enterprises, retail enterprises and users, it has a strict size matching relationship with many aspects, such as product production lines, product packaging, forklifts, shelves, road and railway transportation vehicles, ships, containers and storage facilities. Therefore, pallet standard is the most basic standard in the logistics industry. The standardization of pallet directly determines the process of logistics standardization and the operation cost of modern logistics industry

2. Pallet international standard

in the process of goods trade, every country always hopes that other countries will adopt their own pallet standards, so that their export goods can fully share the logistics facilities of the other party, enter the other party's market at a lower logistics cost, and enhance their product exports, but they are not willing to change pallet standards and industrial standards for other countries. Therefore, pallet international standards have always been one of the focuses of international standard formulation and international trade negotiations. For example, in Europe, in order to achieve the unification of pallet specifications and achieve the purpose of joint operation, governments, chambers of Commerce, railway unions and other organizations have reached a unified adoption of 1200mm after nine years of negotiation and consultation × Protocol of 800mm specification [2]

since the pallet standard 1200 series representing European interests (i.e. 1200mm × 1000mm and 1200mm × 800mm) has taken the lead in becoming the ISO international standard. After a long-term struggle and intransigence and concessions, national interest groups such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea have led the international organization for standardization to adopt an inclusive attitude and gradually juxtapose all pallet standards representing the interests of these countries and regions as global universal international standards. Originally, there were only four standards in ISO 6780 "main dimensions and tolerances of intermodal general flat pallets" revised by iso/tc51 pallet Standardization Committee in 1988, but under the long-term struggle between Japan and South Korea and European and American interest groups, the international standard of pallets was increased by 1100mm in 2003 × 1100mm、1067mm × There are two types of 1067mm. At present, there are six standards in ISO 6780 main dimensions and tolerances of intermodal flat pallets, as shown in Table 1. Australia has the highest utilization rate of standardized pallets in the world, up to 95%, 75% in Europe, 55% in the United States, 35% in Japan and about 26.7% in South Korea [3]

3. The current situation of pallets in China and the selection of international standards

in the process of the transformation from traditional logistics to modern logistics, pallets are the basis for improving logistics mechanization, enhancing supply capacity, shortening supply time, and improving logistics service quality, while pallet standardization is the basis for the healthy development of logistics industry. Although the Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of communications proposed to adopt ISO 6780: 1988 "main dimensions and tolerances of intermodal general flat pallets" as the national standard of pallets in China in 1996, the former National Bureau of Technical Supervision approved and issued this standard with the serial number of gb/t 2934-1996 standard, including 1200mm × 1000mm、1200mm × 800mm、1140mm × 1140mm、1219mm × 1016mm four standards. However, due to too many international pallet standards and the lack of pallet sharing system, this recommended standard does not effectively solve the problem of inconsistent specifications in the process of pallet intermodal transportation in China. According to the survey of more than 300 enterprises conducted by the pallet Committee of China Federation of logistics and purchasing in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou in 2002, the pallet specifications used in circulation in China mainly include (unit: mm):;; And dozens of specifications [4]. Too many specifications have seriously hindered the standardization process of pallets in China

with the rapid development of China's logistics industry and the continuous increase of international standards for pallets, the design of the host and auxiliary equipment of the equivalent experimental machine has drawn lessons from the Xianjin technology of Shimadzu, Japan. It is no longer a rational choice to adopt all international standards. Therefore, the scientific selection of international standards for pallets is a major issue facing China's logistics industry. In recent years, China has successively established the logistics standardization committee and the pallet Standardization Committee of China Federation of logistics and purchasing. In March, 2001 and August, 2004, two policy documents, "several opinions on accelerating the development of China's modern logistics" and "opinions on promoting the development of China's modern logistics industry" were issued successively to promote the development of China's logistics industry, and the "national logistics standard 2005-2010 development plan" was formulated accordingly in August, 2005. At present, experts from all aspects are being organized to speed up the revision of China's pallet standards. The new standards are expected to be introduced in the near future, which will lay a solid foundation for China's pallet standardization and create favorable conditions for the smooth establishment and development of China's shared system

II. Pallet sharing system and its current situation at home and abroad

pallet exchange system refers to the social service system responsible for pallet leasing, recycling, maintenance and updating. Under the regulation and guidance of the government, it is led by pallet production enterprises and logistics enterprises, or jointly established by all relevant stakeholders in the logistics industry, or invested by private capital under the guidance of the government. It establishes service stations responsible for pallet leasing, recycling, maintenance and updating in major ports, docks, airports, highway and railway freight stations, large and medium-sized wholesale and retail centers and major traffic crossings in China, so as to speed up the application of pallets in production enterprises Circulation between logistics enterprises and sales enterprises, promote pallet intermodal transportation and mechanized operations, improve logistics efficiency, shorten supply time, and greatly reduce logistics costs. The working process of the tray sharing system is shown in Figure 1

as early as the 1960s and 1970s, advanced developed countries such as Britain, the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada built logistics pallet recycling and leasing service stations around major transportation hubs such as port terminals, rail freight stations and various large and medium-sized wholesale trading markets, built a very complete pallet sharing system, and established national or international industry associations accordingly, Responsible for the coordination and management of pallets. For example, the European Union established the European pallet Association headquartered in Paris. Among them, Australia, which benefited from the Pacific War, is the first country in the world to have a pallet sharing system. 2. In the 1930s, the U.S. military first used pallets to transport military materials in the Pacific War to improve logistics support capabilities, and established the Allied materials handling StandingCommittee (amhsc) in Australia. After the end of World War II, the Australian government established a Commonwealth handling equipment pool (CHEP) using military pallets and equipment left by the US military in 1946. In 1949, under the leadership of the Liberal Party, the Australian and New Zealand government decided to privatize CHEP and sold it to the bramble group in 1958. Under the management of bramble group, in just a few years, CHEP has become the largest pallet operation company in the southern hemisphere. At present, CHEP has 7500 employees, and has more than 500 service centers in 42 countries around the world to provide services to 500000 manufacturers and retailers. It handles 2.5 million logistics equipment every day, and sends, recycles, maintains, cleans and recycles 255 million pallets and containers

in 1965, China used the method of counterpart communication between Beijing Guang'anmen railway station and Shanghai east railway station to realize pallet intermodal transportation; In the 1980s, the Ministry of communications allocated special funds to promote pallet intermodal transportation in Shanghai and Dalian. These two projects failed due to the business system, management mechanism, pallet standards and quality, and ultimately failed to guide the start of pallet leasing services in China, delaying the golden development period of more than 20 years. Fortunately, in March, 2004, Haier Group began to provide pallet rental services to its raw material suppliers and product distributors in Qingdao, marking the upcoming birth of China's pallet sharing system in the new century

III. The practical value of establishing a pallet sharing system

pallet specifications are strictly matched with product packaging, forklifts, shelves, containers, transportation vehicles, handling equipment and facilities. The establishment of a pallet sharing system is responsible for renting and collecting standardized pallets according to the current lightweight development and trend, guiding more enterprises to use standardized pallets and promoting the circulation of pallets among enterprises, which can not only effectively guide the standardization of pallets, but also further guide more enterprises to choose standard forklifts, use standard shelves, rent standard means of transportation, and build standard storage facilities, Comprehensively promote the process of logistics standardization in China. In recent years, China's logistics industry has developed rapidly at a rate of nearly 30%, but the logistics cost has not decreased with the expansion of logistics scale. According to the statistics of China Logistics Information Center, the total logistics cost of the whole society accounted for 24% of GDP in 1991. By 2003, this proportion was still as high as 21.4%. After 13 years of development, it has only decreased by 2.6 percentage points. At present, the logistics cost in developed countries accounts for only 9% - 11% of GDP, but China is twice as high as that in developed countries. If we establish a pallet sharing system, guide pallet standardization, gradually realize pallet intermodal transportation, improve the efficiency of mechanized operation, and reduce the logistics cost to the level of developed countries, according to the scale of China's current GDP, we can save 1 billion yuan of logistics costs every year [5]. Specific performance in the following aspects:

1 It is conducive to reducing the logistics cost of the whole society.

establish a pallet sharing system, rent and recycle pallets, and promote the free exchange of pallets among enterprises. For enterprises that use disposable pallets for cargo transportation, they don't have to spend a lot of money to buy or make their own pallets. They can rent multiple recyclable pallets directly from the pallet sharing system, and the rent they pay is far lower than the cost of disposable pallets, It can effectively save pallet costs for enterprises. For example, the current pallet rental price of Haier Group is 3 yuan/time, while it costs more than 30 yuan to buy a disposable cork pallet, a difference of more than ten times. For enterprises that use reusable pallets for many times for a long time, they no longer need to recycle pallets by themselves, which can also save a lot of transaction costs; For those enterprises whose pallets are only used internally, with the pallet sharing system, there is no need to store spare pallets, which can reduce the cost of using pallets. It is estimated that after the tray sharing system is established in China, on the whole, "about one third of the trays can be saved, which has great economic value". Establishing a pallet sharing system to promote the circulation of pallets among enterprises can also greatly reduce the number of pallet exchanges and handling costs. According to the figures published by foreign pallet authoritative organizations, under the good operation of the pallet sharing system, a pallet from being put into use to being scrapped is in the production