National Beef signs pooling agreement

National Beef Packing Company LLC and Rehrig Penn Logistics (RPL) have signed an agreement for RPL to supply National's Dodge City processing facility with pooling services for a new plastic reusable combo bin.

Used to store and move meat trim and grind product both inside the plant and outbound to customers, the combo bins measure 40x48x47 and could hold up to 2,600 pounds of product and are fully collapsible when empty.

Using 100 percent plastic combo bins will enable National Beef to eliminate using wood pallets and corrugated gaylords during processing. This will reduce the potential of contamination from wood pallets, and eliminate product damage from corrugated gaylords.

The bins are reusable and recyclable, which would help National Beef to achieve its goal of using more environmentally sustainable transport packaging, while also reducing packaging costs and product damage.

RPL has set up a 15,000 square feet service facility in Liberal, Kansas, to serve National Beef. In addition to managing freight and washing and repairing combo bins, RPL will employ RFID technology to track the movement of the bins and will provide real-time reporting for inventory management and supply chain analysis using RFID data collected in its proprietary web-based asset recovery and tracking system, P.A.R.T.S.