Have you ever lost crates? This is an annoying and common problem among organizations that work with returnable packaging such as crates, carts and other load carriers. Crates are necessary to transport products to their final destination. These load carriers often travel along several parties in the supply chain, but eventually you expect to get the crates returned to your own location. Unfortunately, organizations often still do not receive the same number of crates in return compared to how many were shipped. Read here how to prevent your crates from getting lost.

Track and trace your crates

Various techniques have been devised to identify your own crates. For example, by having the crates printed with a logo or name or by working with stickers. Unfortunately, this does not solve the problem of lost crates. By printing crates, there is still a lack of overview about the number of crates at each location. As a result, you still do not know from whom you will receive crates in return. Read more in the article here: Which bread crate is mine?

Online registration of crates

TrackOnline gives you control over your crates. In the packaging platform, you can easily register the incoming and outgoing crates. This way you can keep track of the exact number of crates at each location and you know from whom you can expect crates to be returned. In TrackOnline, all relevant information about your packaging registration is available in one cloud-platform. This way you can access and review your packaging administration at any time. With TrackOnline the paper administration is a thing of the past. Paper and handwritten receipts can now be processed online in the packaging platform. When external relations still work with paper receipts, then it’s possible to take a picture of the receipt using the mobile application of TrackOnline. This way, all relevant information about the packaging flows is digital available.

Automate crate management

TrackOnline offers many opportunities for automation within the various steps of the logistics process. By using automatic actions, the manual work is reduced and you reduce the chance of (manual) errors. Save time by:

– Having automatic emails sent from TrackOnline based on certain triggers in the packaging administration

– Setting up automatic transfers on delivery or collection of packaging.

– Connecting the ERP, WMS or TMS system to TrackOnline through an API interface.

Through the API interface, orders from the ERP, WMS or TMS system are automatically imported into TrackOnline. This way, your packaging administration is always up-to-date and correct. Work more efficiently by managing your crates automatically!

Unnecessary high costs

Crates are not expensive per item, but when a certain amount of crates is lost every month, the costs will increase significantly at the end of the year. When the balance sheet is drawn up, it comes up again every year: the high cost of returnable transport items. At the end of the year it is often discovered how many crates have been lost and what costs are involved.  An online packaging registration platform such as TrackOnline prevents high purchase costs of new crates and other load carriers, because you have immediate insight.

This is how you prevent lost crates

With the online packaging registration platform TrackOnline, you will never lose your crates again. This applies not only to crates, but also to any other load carrier from Danish carts and CC containers to plastic pallets. Not only does TrackOnline ensure that crates are returned, you also get structure and overview in the packaging administration and you can easily collaborate digitally with relations in the supply chain. In addition, a lot of manual work is reduced through automatic actions in TrackOnline. The API connection with the various ERP, WMS and TMS systems ensures that orders are automatically sent to TrackOnline. This saves you time and money!

With TrackOnline you register and manage your crates in one platform. More information about TrackOnline? Contact us by e-mail or phone (+315 750 10 50) and one of our employees will be happy to tell you more about TrackOnline during an online demo. If you want to try TrackOnline yourself first, request a free trial and download our mobile app for iOS or Android.