Transit damage is a common occurrence in shipping and logistics and can have a significant financial impact on your business. Mishandling of shipments, relentless vibrations during transport, and adverse environmental conditions are leading causes of damage.
Selecting the correct cartons, investing in sustainable packaging materials, properly assessing your shipment process to identify areas for improvement, and utilizing the appropriate warning labels are just a few ways your business can effectively reduce transit damage.
Select the Correct Packaging Materials
The first step, and likely one of the most important to lowering and ultimately preventing transit damage, is selecting high-quality packaging materials to protect your products. When making your selection, you need to consider factors like size, shape, weight, and fragility of the items alongside how you plan to transport them and their final destination.
Use sturdy boxes, bags, or containers that fit your products safely and securely. Furthermore, including various cushioning materials to fill gaps within the boxes and create a protective buffer against shocks, vibrations, and harsh impacts will further enhance their protection.
As industries across the board continue to explore and implement more environmentally friendly and sustainable business practices, searching for green packaging solutions should be a priority for all companies. While the process can be time-consuming as it is not as widely available as traditional packaging options, establishing a partnership with a reliable and reputable company that specializes in eco-friendly packaging solutions will not only boost your brand image but will help you fulfill your responsibility to reduce your carbon footprint and environmental impact.
Inspect Your Inventory
An important step in preventing damage during transit is properly inspecting your inventory before and after it has been shipped. Checking for any defects, discrepancies, and damages, all of which should be appropriately documented with photos and reports, will allow you to prevent shipping packages that don’t meet your required quality standards from leaving the warehouse, as they could potentially lead to further damage to surrounding packages and pallets.
Ensure you properly update your inventory counts and records and report damage or loss to your courier service, should you use one, and your waiting customer. Recognizing where your products have incurred damage will allow you to highlight potentially weak points in your supply chain.
Separate Different Shipment Types
Strategically arranging and loading shipments into trailers for transportation is vital to mitigate potential transit damage. The first step is separating liquid and fragile shipments from other items, should this be applicable to you. These products are most likely to incur damage during the transit period and require a more stringent loading process.
Liquids are typically placed first at the boom of a trailer to prevent any potential leaks from damaging other packages. At the same time, the most fragile items will stored last, on top of other products, usually in some type of fortified crate.
Additionally, trailers should be loaded to distribute weight evenly and reduce gaps between pallets or packages to cut down on items shifting during transit.
Quality Pallets & Crates
Proper palletizing begins with quality pallets. Typically made of wood or plastic, the freight shipping industry needs them to operate effectively and efficiently. There are a few different standard sizes from which to choose based on your specific needs, as pallets should be stacked with no empty spaces or products hanging off the side. Implementing protective tools like corner protectors, shrink wrap, and banding further protects packages in transit.
Wood pallets are the more versatile option and are considered to be more environmentally friendly than their plastic counterparts. However, damaged or poorly made wooden pallets can easily break during transit, so if you plan to reuse pallets, ensure you properly inspect them before each shipment. Additionally, wood pallets can easily be adjusted to fit custom-sized loads as needed.
Plastic pallets are available for usage but are usually more expensive, unable to carry the same weight as wood pallets, and can’t be altered for custom shipments in the same way wood can. However, plastic is easier to clean and sterilize when shipping food and other products that require strict cleaning processes.
Review Processes
Periodically, reviewing your processes and identifying any areas needing change or improvement is vital. As your business continues to grow, your shipping needs will evolve and grow with it, often leading to necessary changes in multiple areas of operation.
Analyze your inventory data, including damage, error, and shrinkage rates, as well as customer feedback and reviews, to help you identify any patterns or trends that could highlight your problem areas. Additionally, speak directly to your staff members, customers, and carriers for feedback to help you navigate any changes or suggestions you may want to implement to reduce future damage risks.
Utilize Appropriate Labels
When labeling packages for shipment, utilizing the correct labels can reduce damage during the transit process. These labels indicate how packages should be moved and stored, which can lower the chances of careless handling that leads to damaged or broken items.
These warning labels should be placed on multiple parts of the outer packaging to ensure handlers can easily see them. However, sufficient space should be left available for other essential labels, including freight barcodes and other vital shipment information that needs to be easily identifiable and accessed.