CSI Pallet: Asset tracking technology solves a crime

It may not rank up there with Sherlock Holmes or an episode of CSI, but iGPS’s pallet tracking technology helped the Virginia State Police uncover a large stash of “misappropriated” plastic pallets and containers at a pallet manufacturing and recycling firm in New Kent County, Virginia, according to the provider of pooled plastic pallets (http://www.igps.net).

Tracking of iGPS pallets is enabled by RFID tags that can be read as the pallets travel through the supply chain and updated in the pallet rental company’s software system. And while iGPS and the authorities aren’t saying exactly how the pallets were found, Al Farrell, iGPS’s vice president of asset management notes in a press release that the rising value of plastics has led some individuals to steal and resell plastic pallets and containers, much the way other thieves steal copper.

In fact, now that the price of copper is falling, perhaps pallets will become even more valuable. “The police action in this case, and other investigations currently underway, should serve as a warning that technology exists to uncover this illegal activity and law enforcement officials are increasingly committed to stopping it and punishing offenders,” Farrell warns.

Farrell adds that iGPS will continue to work with law enforcement in the future. Maybe there is a CSI Pallets in the future?

Read more from Modern’s Pallet and Packaging Report.