How to protect items during shipping

How to protect items during shipping

When it comes to shipping items many of us know that not all items will arrive at their destination in one piece, what this means is that some of our items will arrive in many pieces because they were broken during shipping. But what many of us do not know is that there are things that we can do to prevent our items getting broken during shipping if we keep a few simple things in mind. But something that you really need to know before we talk about how to protect your items during shipping is that the steps you are going to need to take to protect your items during shipping are going to depend greatly on what materials you are going to be shipping. What this means is that you are not going to take the same steps to ship a piece of china to your grandmother's house that you are going to take to ship a frozen steak to your best customer.

Difficulty rating: Easy

Step one: The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that your item is properly wrapped. If your item is not wrapped properly it will most likely break during shipping.

Step two: The next thing that you need to think about when shipping your items is what service and carrier will you end up using, there are numerous ones to choose from. When choosing a carrier or service the best thing that you can do is to choose the one you are most comfortable with and one that offers you the ability to trace your items, keep in mind that cheapest is not always the best.

Step three: The next thing that you are going to need to consider is the container you are going to be using to ship your items. But keep in mind that all of your containers should meet your carriers suggested standards so before deciding on what you are going to use do some research to see what your carrier suggests you use for each type of item you are shipping

Step four: The next thing that you are going to need to think about when shipping your items is what you are going to be using for your packing materials. Something that you need to keep in mind is that your packing materials are going to be your best bet at protecting your items during shipping so you are going to want to choose wisely. One thing that you need to know is that if you are shipping individual items your best bet is to use bubble wrap, foam, newspaper or magazines to wrap each item in so that each items can be protected during shipping.

Step five: Once you have wrapped each item individually you are going to need to take a look at your container, chances are just wrapping the item is not going to fully protect it during shipping. One thing that you are going to need to do is to make sure that you will in any extra room in the container with other packing materials. The most commonly used packing material would be peanuts, but you can also use foam end caps to hold your items in place or extra layers of bubble wrap. But your goal here is to ensure that your item doesn't have room to move during shipping which in turn will help to protect it.

Step six: If you are shipping perishable items such as food you are going to need to take some other things into consideration to ensure that your item is fully protected during shipping. Something that you are going to need to think about is the time it will spend in transit, so that your item doesn't arrive melted or destroyed. You should look into using expedited shipping options as well as packing your items with ice packs to help keep them cool during transit. If they are frozen items you could look into using dry ice to keep the item frozen, but be sure to check with your carrier before using dry ice.

Other tips/resources:

• Visit your local carrier to purchase all your shipping needs, you can also find your basic shipping needs at office supply stores.
• Items that can be damaged by static electricity should be shipped using special products such as 100% recyclable paper fibers.