The interchange of carts is a very common practice in Floriculture: the producer or trader delivers to the customer Plants and Flowers on carts and the customer returns the same amount of carts and shelves received.
Just like for pallets, there are several interchange circuits. Although having the same dimensions, width 1350 mm, length 565 mm and height 1.900 mm, the carts are exchanged within each individual circuit. In the next few lines I will try to clarify the interchange between DC carts and carts equipped with black plate and padlock.
The DC cart circuit is the most widely used in Floriculture. The reasons for this wide spread are many: the simplicity of the system, the reduced purchase cost and reasonable maintenance costs.
Other systems offer other advantages, depending on a company’s organization, there are those who prefer a system rather than another. There is a third figure, the transporter, between the producer or trader of plants and flowers and the retail customer, such as Garden Center or Supermarkets. In the absence of specific agreements between supplier and customer, the Transporter must also equip itself with carts. The transporters most attentive to the needs of their customers have a very large fleet of carts in order to provide impeccable service both to the Producer and to the Retailer.
Sometimes there is a problem, when one would like to exchange a cart of a circuit with a cart of another circuit. Let's be clear: In Europe there are mainly two circuits: CC and DC.
The CC cart is identified by the plate and red padlock. The DC cart doesn’t have a plate nor a padlock. This is the theory, practice can be different: you can find carts with or without the plate and with a black padlock.
This type of cart can be considered a DC cart, for all practical purposes. The black padlock is in fact the old CC recognition system. Since 2010 this is no longer manufactured. Since 2010 this cart is no longer exchanged in the CC circuit. CC itself is very clear in informing that the only interchangeable cart in the CC circuit is the cart equipped with a plate and a red padlock with RFID. All other carts are considered to be part of the DC circuit.
Those who insist on considering the cart with a black padlock as part of a separate circuit, besides demonstrating a poor knowledge, obviously do not take into account many concrete aspects, for example, the impossibility of obtaining other similar carts. It is as if someone still wanted to use the Italian Lira, the Deutsche Mark or the Dutch Guilder. This is no longer possible.
Organizzazione Orlandelli has 35 years of experience in the field of carts for floriculture. If you want to know more, you can call us at +390376960311 or email at
info@orlandelli.it