Courier Services: Protective Packing

By: Jason Petrina




Courier companies are beginning to become more popular due to their speed in getting their parcels around the world. Speed is now everything in the business world and these courier companies such as FedEx, UPS and so on. These companies are also becoming one of the fastest ways to transfer physical contents across the world or even just to another town. No matter how much these courier service companies have developed there will be chances for accidents that may result in the contents being broken during the service. But how can individuals like me and you ensure that our packages that we send out will make it to the receiver in one piece. There are a few steps we can take to package our parcel to protect against the possibility of the content getting damaged on the way there.

To protect the content inside the parcel you can easily give it extra protection with internal cushioning. By including internal cushioning you will be able to prevent any shock that may occur when the courier companies is taking care of your parcel. All sides should be packed all around to give it the maximum shock protection. Some recommended cushioning to use would be bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, shredded newspapers, polyethylene sheeting and the peanut shaped Styrofoam. If the parcel is going to have more than one item in it, the items should be individual wrapped with the above materials so they won’t collide with each other in the package. Also make sure there is no space in it for the contents to move around, make it as stuffed as possible. Even though courier companies are now very reliable but humans do mistake, and you don’t want that chance to happen to you.

The external packaging that you prepare will also help decrease the possibility of the content inside the parcel from breaking. Courier companies will often sell you these cardboard cartons but you can also provide your own too. First you will need to know the weight, size and the type of goods that you are planning to send off. This will allow you to determine the carton’s strength. These cartons can range from either a reinforced envelop to big wooden crates sometimes. If you were planning to just send off soft contents and are not that big in size then a reinforced envelope will do. But if the content that you plan on sending is big and heavy then you would need a wooden crate. So the external packaging for sending out your mail to via courier service will heavily depend on the content that is being shipped out.

Some people may not know this when they plan to use any courier services, but cardboard cartons do come in different grade strength. Knowing the right grade strength that you need for your parcel to be safe during the courier service is the one of the most important things to look into. You may wonder how some cardboard cartons can possibly stronger than others; it is just the production process which you will not need to know. The only thing that you need to know is that grade strength’s of cardboard cartons are always printed on the bottom of the carton. Cardboard cartons are usually single walled if it is lighter. But for some people single wall may not meet what they want, there are double wall cardboard cartons designed especially just to package heavy, large or expensive contents.

For most cardboard cartons, they do sometimes only come in single wall. And if you are sending out your content via courier service and still do not feel comfortable enough with the packaging you have given your parcel then you can make your own double wall carton. In fact you can possibly make a double wall cardboard carton even better than the ones sold outside. Simply purchase two cardboard cartons with one bigger than the other in size by a little enough to fit over the smaller one nicely. Take a knife and cut off the flaps on both cartons. And use the smaller carton to be the one to hold the contents. Now all you have to do is slide the bigger box over top of the smaller one. To give your parcel more protection you can add in some internal cushioning in between the two cartons as well. And there you have it a homemade double wall box for your parcel to be safely sent out by courier services.

To help the courier services prevent any lost content in the parcel would be to seal the parcel with strong and reliable tape. That way the parcel may not open up by accident and cause the content to fall out. First the tape should be wider than 38mm in width, so it can hold a sufficient amount of the flaps. Always when applying the tape along the length of the flap to make sure you apply an additional amount of length after on both ends of the flaps as well. Using the proper tape in this situation is important as well, as normal stationary tape will not be able to hold the flaps strong enough. If it is a rather large parcel then additional plastic strapping or binding should be employed on top of tape. This is one of the ways of protecting your parcels and insuring it will arrive to the destination safely when using a courier service.



Jason Petrina is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com