Tips for Preparing Freight to Ship on a Pallet
When you’re preparing freight to ship on a pallet, a lot can go wrong. By enacting some of these tips, you can help ensure your pallet freight gets to its destination damage-free.
Use Boxes Suited for Your Product
If you’re packing your own products, using boxes with an appropriate compression resistance can help reduce the risk of crushed packages, damaged freight, and therefore unstable pallets. When choosing boxes, consider how much the product weighs and how much freight you’ll be shipping on a single pallet.
Pack Pallets with Physics in Mind
Top heavy pallets are unstable. It’s simple physics. To counteract this, pack heavier boxes on the bottom of pallets and lighter boxes at the top. Particularly is you heeded the tip above, stacking heavier boxes on the bottom should help you build pallets that don’t easily tip or crush.
Stack Boxes Directly on Top of One Another
Most of the stability of boxes comes from the corners. By stacking boxes directly on top of each other rather than ‘Tetris-ing’ your pallets, your pallets will be more structurally sound, helping prevent damaged freight and tipping.
Use Slip Sheets
Slip sheets, or thin sheets of cardboard or plastic situated between layers of boxes or boxes and pallets, can help support the bottom of boxes, improving their crush resistance. They help spread the weight of the freight over a solid foundation, which is especially helpful if there are large gaps between pallet slats or boxes.
Keep Freight on the Pallet
When you’re stacking pallets, make sure all freight is on the pallet. Boxes that overhang the edge of the pallet are more prone to damage. You can also utilize straps to keep heavy freight on pallets and use stretch wrap around the entire pallet to keep freight stationary, even during the movement that comes with loading, shipping, and unloading.
Label Carefully
No matter how well your pallet is packed, a mislabeled, unlabeled, or unclearly labeled pallet could wind up in the wrong place. Be sure you label pallets with the recipient, address, and contact information.
3PL providers, with their edgy technology and expansive rolodexes, often have great insight into reducing shipment damage. If you’re experiencing frequent damage when you ship freight on a pallet, talk with an expert at Blue Grace and get a supply chain analysis, which may offer solutions.
