End of the interchangeability between Wooden Pallet EPAL and EUR (UIC)

EPAL France Press Release

End of exchangeability between EPAL and UIC
March 13, 2017

Excerpt from the press release

"After long months of uncertainty, the agreement between EPAL and UIC was officially denounced by EPAL in February 2017.
EPAL explained that it had sought a solution to maintain this exchangeability, but UIC is lax in carrying out quality controls on its pallets and, unlike EPAL, UIC does not prosecute counterfeiters in court.
UIC thus allows counterfeit pallets of poor quality and potentially dangerous to enter the "pooldes palettes Europe".
However, at the request of some National Committees, a transition period was decided (as had been the case in 2004 for PKP pallets).
UIC pallets manufactured after 1 March 2017 are not exchangeable. Those manufactured before this date benefit from a stay until 2021, on the express condition of meeting the exchange criteria of the EPAL.

What consequences for the French market?
The answer to this question will depend on the attitude of pallet users. Indeed, EPAL pallets circulate freely within what is known as the "open pool" of pallets managed in an exchange system. Heir to the "European Pool of Pallets" created after the Second World War by the railways, this virtual "pool" does not obey any constraints imposed by law or regulations.

European pallet exchanges, whatever the brand attached to them, are subject to the goodwill of commercial partners: shippers, logistics carriers and distributors. The absence of legal constraints means that only commercial contracts define the obligations of the various parties. As pallets are sometimes absent from these contracts, it is the use and especially the respective weights of the various partners that define the mutual obligations.
In practice, neither UIC nor EPAL can impose their respective exchange criteria in an absolute manner. At most, they can make "recommendations". Pallet owners have absolute freedom to define their own exchange rules.
The only legal limit imposed on them is respect for registered trademarks (UIC, EUR, EPAL, etc.) whose use is reserved for holders of a licence issued by the owner of the trademark concerned.

In concrete terms, no immediate consequences should disrupt the market.

However, over time, UIC pallets should tend to disappear, as PKP pallets did in their time.
Indeed, if EPAL decided unilaterally to stop recommending the exchange with UIC pallets, it is because of the generally poor and potentially dangerous quality of UIC pallets imported from Eastern Europe and which, in large part, do not respect the specifications. EPAL's main criticism of UIC is the lack of action against imports of counterfeit pallets and, to a lesser extent, the weakness of quality control in general. Hence the potential dangerousness of EUR-UIC pallets.

In summary, the number of EUR-UIC pallets on the French market represents only a small percentage of the European type pallets in circulation. A transition period is foreseen until 2021. During this period pallets manufactured before March 2017 are exchangeable (according to EPAL recommendations) provided they comply with the specifications. Their phasing out should be smooth.
It is up to fleet managers offering this service to their customers to specify their own exchange policy.

Pallet users, on the other hand, must ensure that their supplier holds an EPAL licence valid for the current year.
This is the best way to guarantee the fluidity of European pallets by ensuring that they meet the criteria of the international association EPAL, the only body to carry out rigorous and effective quality control and anti-counterfeiting measures to place pallets on the market that guarantee the safety of people and goods.

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