IBC·RecycleReuse · Recondition · Return
Livonia, MI · Est. 2009Contact Us

Tote pooling & fleet management

Stop owning
totes. Start
renting trips.

If you ship the same route every month, owning the cages means owning a tracking problem, a washing problem and a capex line. We already solved all three for ourselves — so we run it as a service.

Model a pooling programmeTell us trips per month and lane

* requiredPhone & postal code: US or Canada onlyQuantity 1–10,000

No phone calls from us — we answer by email from sales@ibc-recycle.com. Privacy

How it works

We own them. You use them.

A pool is a managed population of cages sized to your cycle time, not a fixed set of assets sitting on your balance sheet.

  1. We size the pool

    Trips per month × cycle time, plus a float for wash and transit. Usually 1.6 to 2.2 cages per monthly trip.

  2. We deliver clean, graded stock

    Washed, leak-tested, documented and stencilled with pool IDs so both ends of the lane can scan the same number.

  3. You fill and ship

    Your product, your customer, your schedule. Nothing about your operation changes except the invoice line.

  4. We retrieve the empties

    Backhauled wherever the route allows. Chasing empties stops being your employee’s job.

  5. We wash, repair and recycle

    Including the units that reach end of life. Pool attrition is our cost, not a surprise invoice for you.

Why it is cheaper

Utilisation, not ownership

A privately owned tote fleet sits idle most of its life, because every owner sizes for peak. A pool shared across several customers with offset peaks runs at far higher utilisation — and that gap is where the saving comes from.

What is included

  • Cages, bottles, valves and lids
  • Washing and documentation every cycle
  • Repair, rebottling and end-of-life replacement
  • Retrieval freight inside the agreed lane
  • Monthly utilisation and loss reporting
  • Passport history per cage, available to both ends

Indicative economics

Own versus pool, over three years

Illustrative model for a 40-tote recurring programme. Your numbers will differ — we build the model with your actual cycle time before you sign anything.

LineOwn the fleetPool with us
Up-front capital~$12,000 for 40 reconditioned units$0
WashingYour labour, water and permit, or a toll-wash invoiceIncluded every cycle
Repair & rebottlingUnplanned, lumpy, usually deferred too longIncluded
Empty retrievalYour freight, often one-way and emptyIncluded, backhauled where possible
Loss & shrinkageYours, and it is always higher than you thinkCovered to agreed tolerance
TrackingA spreadsheet somebody maintains badlyPool IDs and monthly reporting
Balance sheetAn asset that depreciates and leaksAn operating line per trip
The honest counter-argument: if your lane is short, your cycle fast and your yard disciplined, owning is cheaper. We will say so.

Pooling questions

Before you commit to a contract

What is the minimum programme?
Twenty trips a month on a definable lane. Below that the retrieval freight dominates and you are better off owning reconditioned stock outright — which we will happily sell you instead.
What happens if a customer keeps a tote?
Covered to an agreed tolerance, typically 2% a year. Above that we invoice at the pre-agreed replacement rate, which is published in the contract rather than invented at the time.
Can we brand the cages?
Yes — stencilled asset numbers and your name, applied in bay 3. The passport ID stays alongside it so the service history still resolves.
Can we exit?
Thirty days' notice after the first twelve months. You can also buy the pool at a pre-agreed schedule if you decide you would rather own after all.
Does pooling actually help emissions?
Yes, for a dull reason: higher utilisation means fewer cages manufactured for the same volume of shipping, and planned retrieval routes mean fewer empty miles. It is the same arithmetic as reuse, applied to the fleet instead of the unit.

Keep reading

TransportHow retrieval is routedOpen →Chemical & coatingsHeaviest pooling usersOpen →Tote PassportThe tracking behind the poolOpen →

Shipping the same lane every month?

Send trips per month, lane endpoints and cycle time. We will build the model and show you both answers.

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