Transport packaging are ready for the peak

The spring peak is imminent with lots of holidays on the way. Of course, there will always be some guesswork gauging when the busy period will actually come out in force. Everyone recognises that weather plays a significant role. For Royal FloraHolland's transport packaging department, this doesn't really matter and the 2025 peak can start now – we're ready for it!

For the smooth supply and handling of flowers and plants, having sufficient packaging, CCs and trolleys are important prerequisites. We make sure they're available, in sufficient quantities even at peak times.

Learning from the previous peak
After every peak, we evaluate and identify possible areas for improvement next time round: how did it go, what went well, what can be done better. This evaluation, together with the supply forecast for the following year, forms the starting point for our preparations, such as purchasing trolleys, buckets and hiring CCs. In 2024, the transport packaging peak went smoothly: we deployed internal night rental only twice and there were no supply stoppages at all.

Preparing for the coming peak

By taking the actions below, we expect to be able to meet our trolley and packaging availability targets again during the coming peak:

• To keep our trolley pool up to standard; we have purchased 1,600 new trolleys and repair defective trolleys on a daily basis.
• We have looked at our own internal processes and freed up extra trolleys where possible.
• Clustering of internal overnight rental in the month of May to reduce the number of unplanned internal overnight rental nights. For 2025, we now have 19 internal overnights planned; that is three nights fewer than in 2024.
• To avoid any shortages, we actively contact transporters on a daily basis to organise picking up trolleys from the hub where availability is greatest.
• Optimisation of inter-hub transportation for greater availability of transport packaging.
• We hereby urge all users not to keep trolleys occupied unnecessarily and eject quickly. This also helps increase availability during busy times.
• Finally, to ensure the availability of our buckets during the peak, we have also purchased new packaging and replenished stocks to the required level.

25,000 extra CC containers available at Royal FloraHolland CC depots
This year, we have also made arrangements to have extra CC containers available during the peak. During the busy period, we can increase availability by some 25,000 CC containers. By doing this, we expect to achieve similar availability to last year.

No storage costs for CC material during the peak
During the peak period, you won't pay storage fees for CC containers and CC shelves. This allows you to leave CC material at our depots at no cost, increasing the availability of CC containers. This year, the peak period will start on the night of Sunday 9-10 March 2025. During the peak period, a peak surcharge will apply for both CC container and CC shelve rental. This surcharge ensures CC material is submitted faster and enables us to issue it again faster.