SBS Worldwide Launches 'Revolutionary' Freight Solution at London Book Fair

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 26 April 2010 - International freight forwarder SBS has found a simple, "greener" way to fit more books inside the traditional sea container. It is a solution that allows publishers to save money (15% on freight costs) and trees (200 million) by allowing up to 30% more books to be loaded into the container.

Launched by Chairman Steve Walker at the BIC Supply Chain Seminar at the London Book Fair, it has already met with a positive response. He says: "There's no magic involved. We simply decided to go inside the ocean container and look at loading, carton stowage, and the issues that surround them. Then we looked at the wooden pallets and the space they took up - and
figured there must be a better way."

That way is slipsheets. As the name suggests, slipsheets are simply flat sheets, made of cardboard fiber, on which the boxes sit. By using them, all the space that is usually taken up by pallets is now filled by books.

Walker explains: "Someone shipping 1,000 containers a year now needs to ship only 865. Those containers do not need be trucked to and from ports or shipped thousands of miles. In this scenario, a publisher would save more than half a million dollars in freight costs today. Not to mention the reduction in carbon emissions."

How Do Slipsheets work?
A simple attachment to existing forklifts allows the operator to pull the slipsheet and cartons onto the forklift, and then slide them off at their required location.

Why not stick with pallets?
The wooden pallet was invented during the Second World War when it enabled goods to be moved more quickly and with less labor. It was a great creation—so good that it is still going strong today. However, things have changed. Pallets are costly, not only financially, but also to the environment.