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Problem: Steel drums and barrels are hard to track. This fact came to light during the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.
Solution: In the same vein as CHEP (Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool, a company dealing in pallet and container pooling services), this business would focus on creating and tracking barrels that store anything from oil to maple syrup.
CHEP designs and sells both “dumb pallets” and “smart pallets” and NPR ran a podcast episode about the work that they do. As they describe, “the pallet is perfect. It's cheap and easy to make. It keeps things a few inches off the floor and works with a forklift. If you get cold, you can burn them. Amazing. Today on the show: [CHEP shows that] Yes, you can build a better pallet.”
In particular, this business would focus on tracking and innovating on ways to reuse the barrels that people use to ship liquids. Whereas pallets ship bulky and often boxed goods, barrels ships goods that do not need a physical receptacle around them. One particular instance where this technology would have been useful is during the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist. As described by Wikipedia,
[This is] the informal name for a months-long theft between 2011 and 2012 of nearly 3,000 tons of maple syrup, valued at C$18.7 million from a storage facility in Quebec. The facility was operated by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (French: Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec, FPAQ) who represent 77% of the global maple syrup supply, and have been compared to a cartel. Adjusted for inflation (2018), this heist is considered the most valuable in Canadian history.
The barrel tracking would serve as insurance for maple syrup (which can cost up to $1,300 a barrel) and oil (which varies anywhere from $40 to many hundreds of dollars per barrel).
Monetization: Margins from operating a barrel distribution company and profits from selling this technology.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)