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Field notes
Notes from the floor.
Short notes on problems we see inside operations, with what to check first.
The pallet cost no one puts on a balance sheet
The cycle and loss cost inside a working pallet fleet.
Waste and recoveryWhy waste contracts rarely get renegotiated
Contract inertia in recovery arrangements, and what it costs.
TransportWhat a freight tender tells you about your network
The lane list and the spread of quotes as a diagnostic.
PalletsPallet market note, October 2026: timber supply, pooling and the export rules
Softwood packaging up 12.6%, imports half as high again as before the Victorian closures, the stink bug season, with the source on every number.
TransportAustralian freight statistics 2024-25, with the source on every number
786 billion tonne-kilometres, NSW road freight at a record, and what it means for a shipper.
More notes follow as jobs complete.
Something here sounds like your floor.
Ten minutes and 24 questions show where to look first. No email needed.
What these are
Short notes on things we keep finding inside operations. Not thought leadership and not a newsletter. Each one takes a problem that is common, says what it actually costs, and tells you what to check first so you can decide whether it applies to you without hiring anyone.
They come from the work rather than from research, so they are narrow on purpose. If a note does not match your operation it probably does not apply, and we would rather say that than write something broad enough to fit everyone.
If one of them lands
Every note ends somewhere you can act. The pallet one leads to supply and collection or to the pallet, waste and recovery review. The freight tender one leads to the quote tool or a cost to serve review. The waste contract one leads to a procurement and supplier review.
Not sure which applies? The operations health check scores six areas in ten minutes and points at the weak one, which is usually not the one you came in worried about.
What we will not write
No predictions about the future of supply chain, no commentary on someone else's merger, and nothing written to be shared rather than used. If a note cannot tell you something to go and check on Monday, it does not get published.
The same applies to numbers. Every figure in these notes comes from work we have done or from a source we name. Where we are estimating, the note says so and says what the estimate rests on, because a number with no working behind it is just a confident sentence.