Do you remember them? Those heavy 25-liter jerry cans? Unlike many of our competitors, we haven’t sold them for years. We much prefer to fill our cleaning products in 20-liter containers. Barend van den Boom (Car- & Truckwash advisor at Spectro) explains why.
The 25 liter cans are slowly dying out. That has everything to do with the maximum lifting weight for employees. Over ten years ago, this was set at 23 kilograms in most EU countries.
Trendsetter
At Spectro we already switched to lighter jerry cans for our cleaning products for the car and truck wash in 2009. Barend: “Some customers asked us if we could supply smaller packaging. In the rollover car washes, employees had to pour the shampoo over their heads. Then 25-liter cans are almost impossible to lift. This became a lot easier with our 20-liter containers. With that, we were really a trendsetter at the time.”
“The twenty liters are just as good for the environment,
but a lot better for your back”
Crate of beer
The call for lighter jerry cans also grew louder among other customers in the market. And because good health is super important to us at Spectro, we stopped selling the “heavy boys” altogether two years ago. Despite customers still regularly asking us about them.
“They still do,” says Barend. “Purely because that’s what they’re used to. For many companies, a 25-liter package of detergent is as obvious as 24 bottles in a case of beer. But when we explain why we no longer sell the heavy jerry cans, everyone immediately understands.”
Cost
According to Barend, the cost difference is negligible. “The liter price is the same. And a full pallet holds 28 twenty-liter cans. So then you have 560 liters, instead of 600 liters. With that, transport costs are also very similar. But much more importantly, the employees don’t have to lift as much. We hear from a lot of customers that their employees notice the difference very well.”
Sustainable
Of course, at Spectro we also ‘just’ take back the empty 20 liter cans. “We shred those along with our smaller packaging in-house,” Barend says. “So that the packaging manufacturer can then offer them again as new. So the 20-liter cans are just as good for the environment, but a lot better for your back.”