Electronic tracking of crate flows

In the Netherlands, food producers can send information on delivered crates to the Versfust platform (= freshcrate platform) via Certipost. The platform is an electronic tracking system that centralises information about the delivery and return of fresh crates circulating within the Dutch food retailing sector. Thanks to this increased transparency,  demand and supply of crates can be kept well-balanced and costs in the supply chain are reduced.

Freshcrates
Millions of crates owned by the Stichting Versfust (Freshcrate Foundation) are circulating in the Netherlands. These crates are used for transporting fresh food products to supermarkets throughout the country. In the past, crates were often in short supply due to a lack of coordination of the crate pool. Especially in peak periods it occurred that some stockpiled crates while others lost valuable time searching for extra crates or were even forced to suspend production.
 

Electronic tracking system
In order to improve the availability of its crates, the Freshcrate Foundation introduced the pool concept in 2008. Within this new pool management system, the crate flows are tracked and coordinated by the Container Centralen Full Service (CCFS) via the so-called Versfust platform (Freshcrate platform). On this digital platform, both suppliers and retailers can provide their crate transaction data in the message format of their choice. Today, a large number of Dutch supermarkets and food producers are connected to this platform.
 

Sending data via Certipost
Certipost e-Supply supports the crate pool management system. Food suppliers who send electronic despatch advices (DESADV messages) to their customers via the CertiONE platform, can now add information about delivered crates to those messages. On your request we will automatically send a copy of your DESADV messages to the electronic Freshcrate platform. This additional feature is supported for both interactive and integrated users on our platform. Would you like to activate this service? Send your request to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   and we will take it from there.