The “HPE CERTIFIED PALLETS” Have Been Around for Five Years

The Federal Association of Wooden Packaging, Pallets, Export Packaging e.V. (HPE) celebrates 5 years of certification standards for pallets. The transport of goods by road, air, or sea requires a solid foundation. This foundation is provided by pallets, the most important load carriers in trade. For five years now, there has been a successful certification standard for pallets in Germany, apart from the classic pool pallets.

(Bad Honnef) Germany’s success as an export nation is somewhat based on blocks, boards, and nails: these are the components of a pallet. Most people are familiar with the classic Euro pallet, especially since the toilet paper shortage. However, beyond that, there are numerous customer-specific pallet solutions and types. To ensure not only safety for users in their daily handling of load carriers and the goods on them but also a conscientious process in planning, construction, production, use, and recycling, the HPE CERTIFIED PALLETS working group was founded in 2017 within the Federal Association of Wooden Packaging, Pallets, Export Packaging (HPE) e.V.

What began five years ago in Bonn is now a valued and established solution for pallet manufacturers and their customers. A pallet ensures the transport of many tons of material during its life as a load carrier. One wants to be completely sure: As part of the certification by a DAkkS-accredited independent testing body, members of the HPE working group must regularly demonstrate that they meet the high requirements set out in the pallet guidelines, which are now also in demand outside of Europe. “In the past five years, we have been able to look back on a successful development with a steadily growing number of HPE CERTIFIED PALLETS on the market,” explains HPE Managing Director Marcus Kirschner.

Static Calculations with Software Tool

The focal point of the specifications in the pallet guidelines is the static calculations for various loadings of pallets with goods, known as load cases. The software PALLET-Express is available for this purpose. This three-dimensional design and static tool creates the conditions for safe planning, loading, handling, and transport of goods. “Regardless of which industry the customers come from: With PALLET-Express, companies can implement their logistics wishes individually in cooperation with partners from our industry,” explains HPE Managing Director Kirschner. The special feature: The labeling of the pallet with the HPE CERTIFIED PALLETS logo in combination with the unique identification of the pallet type through a seven-digit unique identification number allows for worldwide traceability to the pallet manufacturer.

Worldwide Traceability

For a product type manufactured according to the standards of CERTIFIED PALLETS and previously constructed in PALLET-Express according to load case, storage conditions, and handling types, a unique pallet type number is automatically generated upon upload to the globally available database at hpe-pallets.com. With this unique identification, all information about a pallet can be queried online: manufacturer, technical specifications, usage possibilities. Reliability and user-friendliness are convincing: Nationwide, nearly 20 pallet manufacturers belong to the working group. Regionally, their locations range from Bremen to Saxony, from the Upper Palatinate to East Westphalia.

Only Manufacturers Committed to Quality Standards

“Only manufacturers who commit to the special standards of the guidelines and the accompanying high quality level may label their load carriers with the HPE CERTIFIED PALLETS brand,” emphasizes Kirschner. Furthermore, the ambitious association initiative and the software are continuously being developed. “Safety and service are important, but also a forward-looking view of future legislation in the areas of packaging, environment, reuse, recycling, and recovery. The HPE CERTIFIED PALLETS working group is therefore confident that it will become an even stronger partner for German industry, logistics, and trade in the future,” highlights Kirschner.

Photo: © HPE