No Shady Magic Required: Revealing the Secrets of Undamaged Shipping

First, if you are looking for some street magician theatrics, you'll be disappointed.  Unfortunately, packaging has never been that exciting. But what we can offer you are some of the secrets of prepping your pallets for the safest possible shipping trip.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed and, as my dad would say, it's only as good as the operator. But you can work a little magic of your own with the right prepping secrets!

You insure yourself to protect yourself. You have car insurance and health insurance. Likewise, using the right palletization method can insure you eliminate shipping damage. Choosing the right method of palletization should be a careful consideration for any business. Whether you’re choosing stretch wrapping or strapping to secure your loads onto pallets for shipping, there are several factors to consider.

It's important to remember that manual wrapping or strapping is labor intensive and slow: high labor cost for low producivity, too high material usage, and the potential for injury. There's no illusion there: that is a total recipe for disaster.

The primary reason you wrap or strap your loads is to provide protection during shipment. Every time you put a load in the back of a truck, you run the risk of it being damaged during transit. Think of all the reasons loads can fail in transit: all of those things are out of your control.  However, by creating stable loads, it is possible to recover up to as much as 50% of your potential lost products. 

A single person cannot effectively stretch the film to its maximum potential nor can they ratchet straps to their tightest.  These both have negative consequences on holding strength and unit stabilization. To increase stabilization, workers often use more wrapping or strapping than necessary than is necessary. But if you automate the stretch or strapping process, you are optimizing the process: you're lower material and labor costs, increasing load stabilization, and ensuring less damage to pallet loads during transportation.

And, if you want to get to the real secret to success? Material and labor savings, alone, can justify the initial cost of a machine in about a year.