21/09/2016
How do I pack my parcel?
Here are some tips on choosing the right packaging for your product:
1. Review relevant regulations and consider global compliance. If you are shipping overseas, familiarise yourself with regulations for the destination point. Non-compliance can result in product returns, shipment delays, and extra costs for inspections and/or repackaging.
2. Ask for customer handling, receiving, and inspection requirements. Shipping departments should be aware of typical packaging requirements, such as labelling specifications.
3. Consider the transportation mode. Each transport mode subjects shipments to different levels of environmental exposure, physical forces, and re-handling. Security and cargo liability regulations are usually mode-specific. If shrink-wrapped or banded shipments are opened for examination, cargo may be damaged later in transit.
4. Look at the product’s physical traits. To reduce cargo damage from transport, storage, and handling, determine susceptibility to water, sunlight, temperature, and physical stress such as compression, impact, vibration, and surface contact. Perishable, hazardous, and high-value products may require special packaging.
5. Know if the product is subject to inspection. Products are often inspected upon delivery for quality conformance and accurate ship count. When receiving more than one item, the end customer may prefer a bulk package that can be easily opened for inspection, then resealed for movement to the warehouse, factory floor, or store shelf.
6. Make use of durable packaging materials and ensure goods are stowed correctly for transit. Select quality boxes, that are rigid and in good condition (used boxes loose strength). Use proper sealing tape in an H pattern on top and bottom, and consider strapping heavier boxes. Too much padding reduces stacking strength. Avoid boxes that are too big for their contents, as they risk getting crushed.
7. Ensure to use good quality, non damaged Pallets. Everything must be attached to the pallet with strapping and/or wrapping to form a single, inseparable unit. Items must not exceed the dimensions of the pallet. Stacking in columns ensures maximum stacking strength. If the contents are rigid, you can use 'bricklayer style' for increased stability. A level top surface makes it strong, compact and stackable. Use strapping and/or stretch wrapping to hold items in place on the pallet. Wrapping should include the pallet itself. Non-stackable pallets will incur a surcharge. Pallets are stacked for transport, so labels need to be affixed to the side, not the top.
8. Reduce the packaging profile. Reducing the packaging profile can cut freight costs, since the greater of the actual mass or volumetric weight (volume displaced) is charged.
9. Build in visibility, label clearly. No matter how lean the supply chain, most products will be stored or handled multiple times. To increase visibility and chain of control, incorporate bar codes, waybill numbers, tracking numbers, delivery address details, number of pieces etc. on each piece been sent.
10. Consider reusable designs & be conscious of extended producer responsibility (EPR) initiatives. Reusable packaging can achieve lower total costs and improve sustainability. EPR reforms, which several governments have instituted, make manufacturers responsible for a product’s entire lifecycle. Some companies are including return packaging and incorporating reverse logistics with their products, so consumers can easily return items such as electronic devices for recycling, instead of discarding them.
11. Use eco-friendly materials. Choose sustainable packaging materials such as recycled corrugated cardboard and cornstarch-based packing peanuts.Call us today for a quotation 086 110 5859
