GM Europe has signed CHEP as its pallet pooling service provider until July 2016.
GM Europe was the first European original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to launch with CHEP Automotive in 1993, and since then the carmaker has used the services of CHEP's automotive business.
CHEP says its experience in the automotive business, as well as “its unique pooling approach to lowering cost and increasing efficiency in logistics, enable OEMs to focus on their core activity, manufacturing cars.”
While other logistics systems require customers to purchase and maintain their own pallets and containers, the CHEP system does away with the need for capital investment, the company says.
The contract with GM Europe includes about 12.2 million product movements annually across the continent.
The contract extension follows the successful launch in 2008 of the CHEP SAP management system for GM Europe's self-owned specialist containers. This enabled a standardisation of systems and processes across all plants in a real-time environment, eliminating interfaces and allowing a central overview of assets and flows for both parties.