Many businesses rely on reusable containers to move goods through their supply chains. Examples include pallets, crates, bins, cages and other returnable containers.
When these assets are not tracked properly, they get lost, delayed and stuck in the wrong place which leads to high costs and unnecessary disruption.
Without visibility, teams often respond by buying more containers than they need. They also hold extra stock to protect against shortages. Both approaches tie up capital and create waste.
Tracking reusable packaging gives businesses a clearer picture of what they own and where it is. This supports better planning and more reliable operations.
In 2025, the global returnable packaging market was estimated at USD 138.4 billion, reflecting continued growth as companies move away from single-use packaging.
What are reusable packaging assets?
Reusable containers circulate through supply chains multiple times. They are used across manufacturing, retail, food, beverage and industrial logistics.
Common examples include:
- Wooden pallets and plastic pallets
- Plastic crates, bins and totes
- Roll cages, dollies and trolleys
- Returnable transport containers used between sites, for example the containers by shipping companies to carry parcels from e-commerce warehouses to distribution hubs
These items move between suppliers, warehouses, distribution centers and customers.
When tracking is limited or manual, assets can disappear from view very quickly.
Why is reusable packaging hard to track?
Reusable containers face challenges that other assets do not. They are numerous, widely distributed, and often handled by multiple organizations.
Typical problems include:
- Low unit value which makes expensive tracking hardware hard to justify
- Movement through third party sites with no shared systems
- Limited visibility once assets leave a controlled facility
- Reliance on manual counts or spreadsheets
These issues create blind spots that lead to leakages, delays and inefficient use of assets.
What a good tracking system should deliver for logistics and freight companies
Tracking is only useful if it produces data teams can act on. A practical system should provide:
- Visibility of where containers are across the network
- Accurate inventory levels by site
- Alerts when assets go missing or sit idle for too long
- Historical movement data for analysis
- Easy access to data for operations and planning teams
When teams have this information, they can reduce leakages and make better decisions about asset flows.
How the Sensize Tracking System helps logistics and freight companies
Sensize builds tracking technology specifically for reusable packaging. Our focus is on providing visibility without requiring fixed infrastructure like gates or readers at every location.
We work with organizations that manage large fleets of pallets, crates and roll cages across complex supply chains.
The system includes:
- Custom designed trackers that are easy to fit to all types of reusable container
- A cloud platform to view and analyse data
- Tools for exporting data or integrating it into existing systems
Sensize devices are designed for long life and industrial environments, supporting tracking at scale.
How Sensize tracking works
Sensize uses a combination of wireless technologies rather than relying on a single type of tracker.
The system is built around two device types:
- Bluetooth ‘child’ sensors fitted to most containers
- Cellular and GPS ‘parent’ sensors fitted to a smaller number of containers
Child sensors transmit their identity and status to nearby parent sensors. Parent sensors then send this information to the cloud using mobile networks.
This design avoids the need for fixed gateways and keeps deployment flexible as containers move between locations and partners.
Parent/child tracking in practice
The parent and child approach allows companies to track large fleets without placing costly cellular trackers on every asset.
Most containers carry low-cost Bluetooth sensors. A smaller group carries parent devices that act as mobile data collectors. As assets travel together through the supply chain, child data is captured and relayed automatically.
This model supports tracking across shared networks where containers move between different companies. Visibility is maintained even when assets leave a single organization’s control.
The benefits of the Sensize Tracking System
With tracking data from a system like Sensize, teams can:
- View near-real-time container locations
- Check inventories without manual counts
- Identify leakage patterns and slow return cycles
- Reduce emergency container purchases
- Improve asset utilization across sites
This leads to better control over costs and smoother daily operations.
Reusable packaging only delivers value when it stays in circulation. Without tracking, leakages and inefficiencies quietly erode that value over time.
Modern tracking systems like Sensize give businesses the visibility needed to manage assets across complex supply chains.
With better data, teams can reduce waste, improve planning and make reusable packaging work as intended.
