Performed by the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design, the FasTrack life-cycle analysis uses a multistep handling sequence to simulate rough handling of palletized unit loads.

The need for speed has never been greater along the cold chain, as last-mile demands dictated by the continued rise of e-commerce has added to an already breakneck pace spurred by record sales and increased traffic for cold foods over the past 18 months.  Somewhere amid the rush to build new distribution hubs and cold storage spaces is the ubiquitous and often overlooked pallet. Without it, few of the products expedited to market would reach their destinations on time.