Color Another Benefit of Plastic Pallets

Is it time to consider your pallet palette?

The sizzle of new tracking technologies is catching a lot of people’s attention, but don’t underestimate the importance of other proven approaches to coordinate fast moving plant and supply chain environments.

Color differentiation continues to offer important benefits in optimizing pallet and container applications. Different pallet and container colors help with sorting and segregation of materials, differentiating between similar containers, improving hygiene practices or simply enhancing the corporate color scheme.

PDQ Plastics, a plastic pallet manufacturer and distributor based in Bayonne, N.J., offers a wide variety of colors to customers.

“Orange is our most popular color,” said Hartson Poland, PDQ’s vice president of operations. Orange provides good visibility and does not show a lot of dirt. The second most popular color for PDQ is a shade of blue.

   PDQ has found that food processing or grocery manufacturing companies want a pallet that will aid in hygiene. They prefer a pallet that will show dirt so it can be identified and cleaned. Beige is a popular color in these applications.

Food distributors sometimes use a specific colored pallet exclusively to ship meat products in order to avoid any cross-contamination concerns as pallets are reused. For certain applications involving the manufacture or use of various formulas or ingredients, such as rubber compounding, color can help workers identify and segregate different raw materials.

“One processor will order several different colors for identification,” said Hartson.  “We are unique among plastic pallet suppliers in that we offer those at no additional charge.”

Color can also be important for helping material handlers to segregate very similar but different containers or dunnage in manufacturing operations where mix-ups could result in disruption to workflow or product damage.

There are other considerations, too. For general distribution, corporate identity can be an important value-added opportunity. PDQ customers may go with a color that enhances the corporate logo or color scheme, especially where the pallet will be used in retail. There is some demand for highly visible colors, such as day glow orange and safety yellow, but not a lot.

For PDQ, black is the most inexpensive color to use. On orders for hundreds of pallets, the company may offer a small discount, but it may be more significant on larger orders of 10,000 or more.

PDQ Plastics offers a variety of durable, rackable and export pallet products. For more information, call (800) 447-7141 or visit www.pdqplastics.com.