Every year, companies across the United States lose countless amounts of money due to improper storage and shipping of their products. To curtail these losses and claims, companies must take preventative measures to ensure that they are managing their logistics and warehousing sectors or trusting them in the hands of qualified partners.

Even the best-laid plans still leave room for errors, but you can minimize your risk of loss, damage and claims by taking the following precautions.

Decrease the Number of Times Your Product is Handled
It’s a simple bit of logic: reducing the number of times your products are handled will reduce your chances of damage and loss.

Consolidating your LTL shipments can decrease the handling of products through the creation of an optimized route for your trucks. It also streamlines the movement of stock while it is in your warehouse, thus reducing the chances of damage due to human error or accidents.

The Fine Art of Packaging
Packaging, from boxes to trailers, plays a large part in the risk of loss and damage. Scores of product are unnecessarily lost every year due to improper packaging. You simply can’t control every bump that the road will literally throw at your products while in transit.

Make sure that each product is secure and well protected within its original packaging. Also, containers for your shipments should have enough room when fully packed to allow for the optimal amount of padding.

The trick is to make sure that products cannot shift in their containers while making sure that they are not too constricted so as to damage them while in transit.

Finally, make sure to label boxes properly so that workers know what is in each container. Any specific instructions for handling the containers and boxes should be visible so that they are easy to follow.

Loading Trailers
Just as the way your pack your products is important, the way that trailers are loaded is also vital to preventing damage.

Pallets should be loaded onto trucks and packed together to prevent movement when in transit. Belts and banding can be used in trailers to prevent shifting, and each pallet should be properly wrapped in plastic shrink-wrap to keep boxes secure and together.

Also, make sure that boxes are properly stacked on pallets and do not hang over the edges. This prevents the tipping of pallets when being moved.

Follow these rules and you will see your claims shrink, rather than your profits. Better yet, consult the experts at King to find out how we can handle your warehousing and logistics with expertise.