LOGISTICS
“ THE MARKET WASN ’ T USED TO THIS KIND OF ACTION . THE PRICE OF WOOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN FAIRLY STABLE ”
LUC GRAUWET VICE PRESIDENT , PGS GROUP
27.8 million pallets , with a 3.2 % year-on-year growth . In short , pallets are the linchpin of a successful supply chain . That ’ s why it ’ s a wee bit concerning that we ’ re facing — you ’ ve guessed it — a massive shortage of pallets .
Why Do We Have A Shortage ? The lovely wheel of cause and effect . Simply put , pallet makers can ’ t procure many of the materials they need to make the pallets in the first place . That ’ s wood for the planks you nail together , wood treatments to renovate old pallets , and steel for the nails you need to hammer in . That ’ s why , back in April , wood pallets rose by more than a 400 % increase . Bloomberg reported that US $ 9 wood pallets spiked to US $ 15 — not shocking by itself , but drastic once you multiply that by hundreds of pallets .
What ’ s more , there ’ s a dearth of UK truck drivers . In contrast to 15 % year-on-year growth in freight volumes , there ’ s a major shortage of men and women to transport it - almost 80,000 , in fact . In part , this is due to Brexit and a loss of European manpower , but we can ’ t overlook the new IR35 rule — which ensures that contractors pay the same national tax and insurance rates as equivalent employees — an ageing workforce and new cross-border trade restrictions .
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