Fragile items like glass products, many decorative pieces, cosmetics, tech items and many more are important retail pieces. If you look closely at various industries, music instruments, furniture and many other products are also fragile. So, what to do while shipping fragile items? Well, you need to follow safety tips that will make them reach their destination safely.
Especially, in case of large fragile items, delivery and shipping becomes rather difficult. Selecting the right shipping source and also ensure safety tips from your own side of things are required. Also, some fragile items and products can be rather expensive. Here are some professional safety tips for shipping fragile items. These can help you get your products to customers safely:
Choosing the Right Packaging Materials
Safety for fragile items during shipping and handling starts with packaging. Materials need to be selected carefully. Packaging needs to be rigid enough to protect fragile items from any kind of weights put on them. At the same time, packaging needs to be soft enough to absorb bumps and shocks too.
Cardboard is often the selected packaging material for a lot of shipping and courier companies. When shipping fragile items, cardboard offers its soft layers that are also rigid enough to form a protective shell around products. Wooden boxes and even plastic ones can also be selected depending or product.
Different products and items will need packaging materials of different kinds. When shipping fragile items, you need to take into account their sizes as well. A hard outer shell can also be coupled with soft inner packaging layers increasing safety for items packaged inside.
Wrap Item Before Putting in Box
When you ask parcel delivery companies in UK about first step of shipping safety, they’ll tell you importance of wrapping. Of course, wrapping should be the first layer you apply on fragile shipping items of any kind. Use plastic film to wrap items to be packaged properly.
Wrapping makes sure no part of any fragile item or product is lose at all. It also provides a first layer of contact between items and everything else protecting against scratches and other damages. Make sure to wrap with thick layers of plastic film. If you item is too soft, place soft materials inside the wrapping.
Also, make sure to wrap before the item goes in its box if it doesn’t have retail packaging. If your item comes with retail packaging, you might not need wrapping. If it doesn’t, be sure to wrap quite a nice amount of protective film or any soft materials around it.
Do Not Leave Any Wiggle Room Inside Box
Another important thing for shipping fragile items is to not allow any wiggle room or space for movement. Fragile items and products must be locked in their places ensuring they don’t move at all during shipping. This is actually a very important tip that all quality courier companies follow.
When you provide your items inside boxes to courier companies, ensure there is no space for movement. This is why most retail products come with die-cut inserts that have no space for movement inside. You need something like that as well.
For shipping fragile products, fill the sides of the packaging box with soft materials. If you do not have die-cut inserts, use soft cotton or even fabrics for the makeshift job. Even shake the boxed item slightly to see if you get any rattling noises.
Write Clear and Large Fragile Markings on Box
All fragile items should have clearly writing Fragile markings on their packaging. These writings should be very clear to read for everyone. Best courier service in UK will always use box tape that has very bright tape that has fragile text on it. Mark whatever you need to make the fragility of your parcel more obvious.
Use fluorescent markers for this fragile text as well. Any bright colors that are easily visible in all conditions should work fine. Shipping fragile items is all about getting them handled right. Also use texts like “Handle with Care” and other similar ones where needed for better handling.
Also, if you select an online courier service, make sure to provide as much information about the item as possible. Make it clear for people handling your package about how fragile it is. Even provide instructions about items being a glass or any other fragile materials where possible.
Selecting the Right Courier Service
At the end of the day, your courier service will matter most when it comes to shipping fragile items. They will be the ones handling the items and products. What you can do to make things better is to select quality parcel collection and delivery UK service. There are many to choose from as well.
Take previous experiences into account. Ask your social contacts for best courier services that handle packages with care. Read online social media reviews to get a better idea of courier service quality. Take the time needed to make the right decision of going with a responsible service provider.
Especially, eCommerce businesses will need to select their courier service with care. Shipping fragile items is all about making the right courier choices. The cheapest service will not always be the best. However, there are some affordable options available that also don’t hurt the profit margins too much.
Bottom Line
Shipping fragile items is all about ensuring the right steps get taken while their handling and delivery processes. Selecting the right courier service for the job is very important. Spend the small extra amount even if the cheapest courier services aren’t the ones who handle with most care.
Bigger courier companies might also not be the best when it comes to handling fragile items. As they get a higher number of parcels, handling each one with the required care is not always ensured. Also, make sure packaging is of the highest quality for shipping fragile items.
Do not let there be any space for the items to move around when shipped or handled. Write clear instructions about how to handle your products or items for best results parcel collection and delivery UK. Fragile items are usually expensive. Take the care and effort required to ship them just right to your customers or loved ones.
