14 Pallets West
OCTOBER 2018
“Data Gold” of Logistics: Tracker Makes Pallets Intelligent
The Internet of Things is becoming mass-marketable for logistics. Deutsche Telekom, the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML and the European Pallet Association (EPAL) have launched the first 500 intelligent EPAL pallets in practical use, according to a German language press release.
They note that loss and delay are two of the biggest challenges in logistics. Freight theft costs companies billions of euros each year. Due to missing or incorrect information, 30 percent of all deliveries worldwide do not reach their destination on time. Intelligently networked pallets provide the basis for reducing loss and delay issues. Telekom, Fraunhofer IML and EPAL recently presented a new generation of standardized pallets at the German Logistics Congress.
“Intelligent pallets are the start of a new era for EPAL, and the innovation potential of new data availability is crucial to providing our customers with reliable added value and a sustainable business model,” said Ingo Mönke, CEO of GPAL, German National Committee of the European Pallet Association.
“We built the low-cost tracker specifically for EPAL as one of our first customers, with more than 500 million pallets in circulation in Europe alone, which has huge potential to digitize the supply chain,” said Ingo Hofacker, responsible for the IoT business at Deutsche Telekom.