A Letter to Representative Boyland (D-NY)

Online, April 17, 2010 (Newswire.com) - I recently wrote a letter to Representative Boyland of New York to better understand the details of Bill A09173. You can check the progress of this bill at http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menuf.cgi and typing A09173 in the search bar. I wrote the details of this bill in my post titled Bob Moore: Oops I did it again. Essentially, the bill states that all food and perishable goods must be shipped on plastic pallets. Of course this would be a bill Mr. Moore supports. I wanted to learn what Mr. Boyland's intentions are, and if he understands what affects his bill will have on the supply chain and his constituents. I wrote:

Rep. Boyland,

I am an analyst and consultant dealing in supply chain management. I write about both plastic and wood pallets and read the details of Bill A09173. Can you provide more details on your proposal? I understand the dangers of wood pallet contamination due to the porous nature of wood. I also understand the issues with plastic, the environment and how it interacts with the supply chain. Not to mention the DecaBDE issue.

Your proposal only allows for food to be shipped on plastic/composite pallets. H.R. 4394 eliminates decaBDE to be used in pallets, which currently is the fire retardant in the iGPS pooled pallet.

The iGPS plastic pallet is the only viable solution due to cost, but they do not have the inventory to handle 100% of the produce entering N.Y. and other options are 5-10 times the cost.

My question is, are their viable alternatives you would propose to protect farms from higher production costs due to the price increase of pallets? An average farm will go through 20,000 - 50,000 per year, adding $750,000 - $1,000,000 to their annual operating costs if A09173 is passed and other States follow. The same would happen if H.R. 4394 is passed.

I believe I take a fair approach to both arguments and want be factual in my assessments, recommendations and writings. You can follow me at the following sites:

www.palletenterprise.com

www.glgroup.com

www.morethanpallets.wordpress.com

www.free-press-release.com

Thank you for your service in the N.Y. State Assembly.

Sincerely,

Andrew Mosqueda -

More Than Pallets

This bill is much more aggressive than HR 4394 that could potentially affect iGPS, and has definitely affected the public perception of the company. This bill is focused on a specific industry that would create hardships for farmers shipping their products into N.Y. Of course, in the example above most farmers do not ship that many pallets in to N.Y. alone. The main concern is States that would follow similar types of legislation, as in the case with decaBDE legislation.

Mr. Boyland has not responded to my question, but in all fairness it has only been a few days...and being a Democrat they are probably still celebrating passage of the Health Care bill!

If you are a pallet dealer or a farmer, email Rep. Boyland to get a response. We may not be from his district, but his legislation could affect us all in the end. His email address is [email protected]. I will update this post when/if he responds...