Pallet Alliance awarded patent for embedded tracking of IoT-enabled wooden pallets

Pallet Alliance, a provider of comprehensive pallet management programs for multi-site manufacturing and distribution companies, has been awarded a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its IntelliPallet platform, an enterprise-scale pallet management service, to integrate Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled location and environmental sensors into wooden pallets for greater supply chain and logistics visibility.

The patent award (No. 506368778) marks a major breakthrough for the IntelliPallet IoT platform, which provides a wide range of flexible wireless options, including the ability to integrate IoT connectivity without requiring customers to convert their existing wooden pallet systems to more costly composite pallets.

“Our IntelliPallet platform has the potential to revolutionize how supply chain professionals operate within the logistics industry, considering that wooden pallets comprise more than 90% of today’s global palletized shipping market, and are significantly less expensive and more sustainable than engineered alternatives such as plastic or composite pallets,” said Mike Jones, a principal at Pallet Alliance. “With this patent, we look forward to expanding the prospective market opportunities for the IntelliPallet while strengthening Pallet Alliance’s presence within this emerging area of the logistics industry.”

Introduced in November 2019, the IntelliPallet technology is compatible with mobile (cellular), Bluetooth, LoRa WAN, and Sigfox protocols.