Welcome to the October 15th issue of Warehouse & Logistics News. Well done to employee-owned packaging company Kite Packaging, which has produced some of the most innovative systems and solutions for pick, pack, and despatch areas, focusing on ergonomically designed systems to aid lean manufacturing. Many solutions are available to be utilised throughout a warehouse operation, but one of the main areas Kite Packaging advise companies put time and attention to is their packing areas, with a focus on the packing process itself.
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As the UK prepares for the transition from the EU on January 1 next year, the whole emphasis on ‘deal or no deal’, referring to Free Trade Agreement negotiations, is erroneous. It will make not a scrap of difference either way to the customs and documentation process, which was defined in the Border Operating Model published in July. Whatever the outcome of FTA negotiations, the logistics industry will continue with its usual resilience and resolve. We must prepare as best we can, ensuring we understand fully the new requirements, educating our customers accordingly and taking the necessary steps to ensure that chaos is avoided, writes Peter Ward of the UKWA in his regular column.
From April 2022 a plastic packaging tax will apply to all plastic packaging being either manufactured or imported into the UK containing less than 30% recycled plastic, says our packaging feature. This tax will be charged at a rate of £200 per tonne where less than 30% recycled plastic is used in packaging. According to Jemac Packaging, businesses that import or manufacture less than 10 tonnes of plastic packaging over the period of 12 months will not have to pay the tax.
Warehouse owners face the continual conflict between managing their overheads and maintaining productivity. Making the warehouse environmentally friendly and cutting electricity bills can save a business a huge amount. Poor lighting accounts for 34% of warehouse electricity bills, making it the biggest single consumer of electricity in warehouses. Switching to LED lighting has a faster influence on energy use and overheads than any other energy saving solution, our lighting feature reports.
In this year unlike any other, current trends have included an increase in e-commerce, changes in buying behaviour, longer waiting times at destinations and greater demand for transport assets. Technology can help reduce these problems and speed up the delivery to customers. Digital tools will help firms cope with the mountain of data and provide detailed analysis, as explained in our IT feature.
Enjoy reading the issue.
James Surridge
Publishing Editor
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