Rapitainer® Returnable Transit Packaging.

Put simply, Rapitainer® is much more cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to using high volumes of single trip, corrugated packaging such as FEFCO 0201s.

Besides the significant costs savings it can offer your business however, it also provides a wide range of additional benefits too.

Using Rapitainer® returnable transit packaging can reduce your costs in a number of ways.

The most significant savings are a result of the reusability, and therefore lifetime costs – of the containers.

To put these cost savings into perspective, please see below for 3 “real world” scenarios of how Rapitainer® can reduce your business’ costs.

The below illustrates 3 year costs if using single trip corrugated packaging. The figures may vary depending on the size of your business, usage and specific application.

As an example usage, let’s say your business sends out 14 pallets of goods per day. On each pallet there are 20 boxes, which equates to sending 280 boxes each day. Scale this up to one year (based on 312 days of deliveries – 6 days per week) and you would send 4,368 pallets, or 87,360 boxes.

At a cost of £1.50 each, this would be an annual cost of £131,040.

If your business maintained trade at a steady level, the figures / costs above would be the same in Year 2 and Year 3.

The below example provides comparative figures if switching from single trip corrugated to the Rapitainer reusable containers. These figures could potentially be achieved if you use a traditional returnable packaging setup.

This works on the assumption that you still send 14 pallets of goods per day, and 20 boxes per pallet, but that you are operating a 4 week returnable cycle (allowing a week of containers at your facilities, 1 weeks’ worth in outbound transit, a weeks’ worth at your customers premises and finally a weeks’ amount in return transit).

Operating a 6 day week, and a daily volume of 280 boxes, the amount of containers required for 4 weeks would be 6,720.

Purchasing at this volume, the cost of Rapitainer would typically be £10 per unit. This means the 4 week cost would be £67,200. However, this 4 week cost would also cover Years 2 and 3, due the containers being constantly reused with no need for replacements to purchased.

This illustrates that, when compared with single trip corrugated, a ROI is seen within 6 months, and an approximate 2 times return on investment can be achieved at the end of Year 1. As no new containers need to be purchased in the 3 year period, by the end of 36 months to ROI has risen to around 5 x the initial investment.

Alternatively, this is a cost saving of £63,840 by the end of Year 1 (48.7%), or a huge £325,920 (82.9%) by the end of Year 3

This final example is based on your customers using a Just in Time or Kanban setup for the products they purchase from your business. This allows for a much quicker turnaround of the containers used to deliver to your customers.

Assuming 2 days at each site (yours and your customers), plus a day in transit each way, this would mean a requirement for 6 days’ worth of boxes. The amount used per day remains the same as in previous examples (14 pallets per day, 20 boxes per pallet, total 280 boxes per day).

The 6 day usage would therefore be 1,680 boxes. Purchasing at this volume would mean a £15 unit cost, and a total investment of £25200.

This illustrates that, when compared with single trip corrugated, a ROI is seen within around 10 weeks, and an approximate 5 times return on investment at the end of Year 1. As no new containers need to be purchased in the 3 year period, by the end of 36 months to ROI has risen to almost 16 x the initial investment.

Alternatively, this is a cost saving of £105,840 by the end of Year 1 (80.77%), or a huge £367,920 (93.5%) by the end of Year 3.

There are other ways in which your business can reduce costs using Rapitainer®.

For example, the innovative tapeless closure not only reduces the time it takes to assemble the containers (reducing labour costs), but also eliminates the need to purchase this secondary packaging.

It can also indirectly reduce costs by providing higher levels of protection for your items in transit.

The durable corrugated plastic material provides additional protection when compared with cardboard from weather, dust, mishandling and impact during transit.

The knock on effect of this is less products being returned, which in turn means lower costs associated with additional transit, replacements and unusable stock.

The stacking strength and stock sizes designed to work with standard pallets maximises available space when loading and therefore deuced transit costs, whilst the ability to fold the units flat for the return journey (and store inside assembled containers – see below) allows for efficient return transit too.

This also means they take up little storage space when not in use in your supply chain.

One problem with many returnable transit packaging systems is the return of the empty containers.

This can often mean shipping back “fresh” air inside your empty containers. It can also be problematic if your deliveries will typically visit multiple sites or customers in a single journey.

Rapitainer® resolves this issue due to its ability to fold flat.

This allows multiple Rapitainers® to be laid flat on a single pallet for the return journey. Even better than that however, is that collapsed containers can be packed inside erected cases – in lots of 10 – making for an even more economic return journey.

Whilst there are various configurations, what this means in essence is that 20 Rapitainer® boxes (i.e. an entire pallet load) can be collapsed and returned in 2 assembled Rapitainers®.

Alternatively, 5 whole pallets loads (stacked 4 high) can be folded, stored and returned on just a single pallet.

Another key benefit of Rapitainer is the difference it makes to your business’ environmental impact.

The energy required to bundle, transport and then recycle old corrugated boxes into new corrugated boxes (effectively ending up with what you started with), is significantly greater than the energy and resources required to use Rapitainer® as part of a closed loop transit system.

The fact that Rapitainers® can last for 100s of trips, and can be easily cleaned, also lessens the environmental impact (raw materials, manufacturing, transport) when compared with single trip corrugated.

Besides this, Rapitainers® can also be fully recycled at the end of their usable lifespan.

View a selection of Rapitainer® returnable transit packaging boxes in use. Please click the individual thumbnails for a larger view.

There are a number of ways in which you can further enhance your Rapitainers®.

As such, the following section details the standard and bespoke options available when specifying your returnable transit packaging containers

Rapitainer® is available as standard in a number of different colours, allowing you to match your company branding. Non-standard colours are available on request (and subject to order volumes)

It is also possible for one or two colour logos to be printed onto Rapitainers®. Besides branding, you can also include handling instructions, health and safety info, label areas and any other supporting info you may need.

Whilst Rapitainers® are most suitable for loose fill products, they can be enhanced with a number of dunnage options. This includes fold flat divider sets, nestable vacuum formed trays and layer separation pads / slip sheets.

Please note that using dunnage that cannot be collapsed / efficiently stored will have an impact your return transit costs.

GWP Correx® – and our parent company GWP Group – have almost 30 years’ experience in creating durable, cost effective returnable transit packaging.

This experience and knowledge allows your business to take advantage of the latest innovations and ideas – such as Q Grip and Rapitainer® – and achieve significant efficiency gains and cost reductions.

You can call on a dedicated team of designers to tailor your chosen transit packaging to your exact requirements, and get support from a knowledgeable and experienced team at every stage of your project.

If you would like to discuss how moving to a returnable packaging system with Rapitainer® could benefit your business we would love to help – please get in contact with using the details below or by completing our contact form.