Shipping Damage Prevention

Whilst other factors come in to play – such as the quality of couriers and the distance your are items travelling – having to write off even a small percentage of the products you ship can cost thousands of pounds. However, this can sometimes be much more depending on the value of the goods.

As well as this obvious cost however, there are other factors to consider that are just as important.

For example, when considering consumer packaged goods, damage during transit will lead directly to reduced on-shelf availability. This equates to loss of sales.

Besides this, everyone knows the frustration of receiving damaged goods. This is especially acute when they are critical to your business or operations. Add this to the admin associated with returning items and the costs of dealing with this and it can very quickly lead to unhappy clients.

Happy customers tend to be loyal customers who spend more and will recommend you to colleagues and friends. Customers frequently receiving damaged items won’t. The impact on your business and its’ potential growth can be severe.

GWP often work with companies like yours that are experiencing such problems. However, by analysing the product and type of damage in detail, and then applying vast experience and knowledge of transit packaging design, your business can have great success in solving such problems.

GWP’s solutions regularly not only engineer in the right level of protection for the product but also engineer out cost.

In many cases, using less of the right material is both more cost effective and more efficient in terms of protection than using more of the wrong material.

Whilst damage to items in transit can occur in a number of ways, there are three which are most common across the majority of industry / market sectors.

Firstly, and perhaps the most frequently observed, is that of prolonged vibration or sudden impact during shipping.

Depending on the fragility of the product and type of packaging used, this can either occur suddenly (breakage) or from prolonged or repeat handling / transportation (fatigue failure).

Also fairly common is damage resulting from poor pallet or load stability. This can be caused in transit by vehicle cornering and / or breaking, or by stacking packaging too high (resulting in crushing or “bursting”).

Finally, and often overlooked, is damage caused to surfaces by abrasion. This can be through excessive vibration and surface contact between product and packaging (or even product and product), and typically affects printed, polished or painted surfaces.

By working alongside GWP Group, you can take advantage of a wide range of technology and software that will calculate the exact performance of your packaging.

Your business can benefit from proven strategies and a team of experienced designers that specialise in eliminating transit damage to your items.

From how the boxes can be safely stacked, to safe drop heights and vibration, the use of specialist software(or appropriate testing as required) allows us to create not only the perfect structural design, but also select the perfect material to eradicate damage.

This can include corrugated cardboard, Correx® fluted plastic, plus a range of foam fitments from materials including Stratocell and Ethafoam.

There are also numerous specialist coatings available to prevent surface scuffs, corrosion during transit (VCI) and even damage caused to electronic devices by static charge.

The infographic below highlights just how costly transit damage can be – significantly outweighing any cost savings from under-specifying your packaging.

Please click the image for a larger view.

For certain items, the cost of it arriving damaged is incalculable.

For example, a component for military equipment that arrives damaged can imperil missions and put lives at risk. Similarly, specialist medical equipment can, if damaged on arrival, mean the difference between life and death.

Certain tools or components can be so costly or specialist / rare, than any damage could threaten a business’ financial performance and ongoing success.

For situations like this, your business can call on a team of engineers at GWP Group that can calculate extremely precise performance and tolerances in foam cushion packaging.

Designed and manufactured in Plastazote® polyethylene foam, these tailored foam profiles utilise theoretical “cushioning algorithms” which are exceptionally accurate at predicting the protection against drop damage offered by different densities and thicknesses of foam.

This allows the design team to engineer your businesses’ packaging with precisely tailored levels of protection.

If your company is experiencing unacceptable levels of damage in transit, why not get free, no obligation advice on how to solve it? Get in touch today to discuss methods of shipping damage prevention tailored to your business.