Grade on arrival
Down 71%. Not because our grading improved, but because the intake photographs and the grade call now sit in the same record and either settle it in thirty seconds or prove the customer right.
Yard log · 21 March 2024
Eighteen months of serialising everything
In 2024 we finished putting a permanent ID on every container that passes through the yard. It cost more than we budgeted, took longer than we planned, and settled arguments we did not know we were having.
- Sheet
- 94
- Revision
- 2026-10
- Scale
- 1:1
- Drawn at
- Peoria IL
100%Of flow serialised
18 moTo roll out
7 yrHistory retained
−71%Grade disputes
A used container industry without serial numbers is an industry that argues about memory. We spent eighteen months fixing that for our own flow and would do it again in half the time.
Every container now gets two identifiers: a laser-etched internal ID on the cage upright, which survives washing, painting and twenty years of weather, and a QR placard on the front face, which does not survive everything but is readable from a forklift seat. Both point at the same record.
What the record holds
- Intake date, source, and the five photographs taken at the gate.
- Last-contents declaration as supplied, plus our own assessment if the two disagreed.
- Every wash: cycle type, temperature, operator, pH on neutralisation, lab result where applicable.
- Every repair: valve, gasket, cap, cage jig work, pallet re-deck, rebottle with the bottle's own lot.
- Grade at intake, grade at release, and who made each call.
- Outbound: customer, date, bill of lading, and the diversion statement the load appeared on.
Seven-year retention, because compliance documentation for containers has to outlive the containers. The record is queryable by serial, by customer, by last contents and by wash lot, which is the part that turned out to matter.
The arguments it ended
Whose container is this
Toll processing used to depend on keeping pallets physically separate and trusting the yard. Now a customer's serials are a query, not a corner of the yard.
Allergen and chemistry history
A food customer can ask what a specific container has ever held, and get an answer rather than a policy statement. This is the single most valuable thing serialisation bought us.
It also ended an argument we were having with ourselves. Before serialisation, our diversion rate was a calculation over tonnage. Now it is a count over records, and the two did not agree in the first quarter — the old number flattered us by about a point and a half. We published the corrected figure and the methodology note that goes with it.
What it cost, and what we would change
| Item | Budgeted | Actual | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Etching equipment and fixtures | Baseline | On budget | The easy part |
| Placard printing and application | Baseline | +40% | Adhesive-free stock costs more and is worth it |
| Backfilling existing inventory | 6 weeks | 5 months | We underestimated by a factor of four |
| Process change at intake | 2 weeks | 4 months | Habits, not technology |
| Record system | Baseline | +15% | Querying by wash lot was a late addition |
- Start with inbound flow only. Backfilling standing inventory while running a season nearly broke the intake pad.
- Etch before washing, not after. We learned this the expensive way on about 400 containers.
- Design the queries first. We built the record around containers and had to retrofit it around wash lots, which is how a food customer actually thinks.
- Make the placard adhesive-free from day one. Label residue is a waste stream and a de-labelling cost.
Running a fleet of your own?
The pooling program is serialised by default — reserved ranges, full history, quarterly reporting. It is the same system, pointed at your containers.