Not all businesses have the luxury of shipping small, lightweight items. If your business revolves around heavier products, you might have some issues with shipping. How can you ship your items safely without any damage? Here are some important tips.
Use the Right Type of Box
When shipping heavy items, you need boxes that are made out of heavy-duty cardboard and that have flaps extending all the way out. This is often called a full overlap carton. This increases the structural integrity of the box as it's shipped, as long as it is taped and assembled correctly.
Get the Right Packing Materials
Bubble wrap and airbags work for smaller items, but heavier items are going to need a little more protection. Heavy items will need denser packing materials, such as foam padding and cardboard forms. Ideally, your heavy items aren't going to be moving around in the box at all.
While small items can bounce around in the box, you want a heavy item to stay in place. Rather than using something mobile such as packing peanuts, your goal should be to fill every empty space with padding. This is even more important for items that are irregularly shaped.
Try Not to Overload
It's tempting to try to decrease shipping costs by packaging everything in a single box, but overall, you risk less when you send things in multiple packages. When shipping heavy items, consider the individual cost of shipping carefully and make sure you don't undercharge your customers.
Smaller, lighter boxes aren't just safer for the items inside of them; they're also safer to pack and to transport. You and your employees are less likely to get injured when transporting items of an appropriate size for the weight.
Box Multiple Items Separately
If you do have to send all of your heavy items in a single shipment, make sure each individual item is in its own box and the stack these individual boxes into your shipping box. Try to balance the box appropriately, with the heaviest items on the bottom and the lightest items at the top.
Tape It Up
When it comes to heavy objects, more tape is often better. The bottom and lid of your box should not have any give. Make sure to seal every seam of the box. Taping properly improves the structure of the box substantially. When you tape all of a box's seams, the stress is distributed evenly along the entire box rather than concentrated at specific areas. This makes the box less likely to tear in transit.
You also need to use the right tape. Though masking tape may be plentiful, you need shipping tape. You can find it at any shipping center.
Put On Multiple Labels
The last thing you want is a heavy item returned to you and then shipped again. With heavy items, you want to put multiple labels on the box in case one of the labels is ripped off. A large, heavy package is more likely to experience friction and force that could cause the label to come off.
You can also place a shipping label inside of the box so the item can be delivered even if the labels are lost or the exterior is cosmetically damaged.
Above all, you need to invest in the right packing materials if you're going to be shipping heavy or bulky items. Capitol City Container Corp offers all types of boxes, from traditional corrugated boxes to custom cut boxes that will fit any item you need to ship. To get a quote on heavy-duty packaging, contact
Capitol City Container Corp today.