Glossary · Packaging and intralogistics
Tertiary packaging
Also known as: Transport packaging, Shipping packaging
German: Tertiärverpackung
In packaging, tertiary packaging is the packaging used to handle, store and transport larger quantities of secondary packages, such as pallets, stretch film, corner boards and shipping labels forming a unit load.
- Intralogistics
In one sentence
Tertiary packaging is the transport packaging, such as a pallet with stretch film, that combines secondary packages into a unit load.
Example
Forty cases on a stretch-wrapped pallet with an SSCC label form the tertiary packaging for shipment to the distribution center.
How it applies
- Engineering: Tertiary packaging is made by palletizers, stretch wrappers, strapping machines and pallet labelers at the end of the line.
- Logistics: Pallet labels with identifiers such as the SSCC link the unit load to shipping data. In serialized supply chains, Serialization aggregation links the pallet to its cases and units.
- Sustainability: Packaging regulations increasingly address transport packaging too, for example reuse targets under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.
- Documentation: Specify pallet patterns, wrapping parameters and labels as controlled master data, and describe stable load building in the palletizer documentation.
Tertiary vs. secondary packaging
Secondary packaging forms a sales or handling unit; tertiary packaging forms a transport unit. Terms vary between industries, so a glossary in the project documentation should fix them.