Without packing your goods properly, you will not have that guarantee that your items will be delivered in the same manner as they left you from your point of delivery (Which is point A). This is because as with any type of delivery service, the risk of goods not being damaged is never zero, and if you package your goods properly, you will be able to reduce the probability of getting your fragile goods damaged while delivered by a significant amount.

Fragile goods can come in any size and shape which can make some items very tricky to package properly. With that said, let’s look at how you can transport and package your delivery items step by step.

First things first, you should always make sure you choose a good courier company. The reason we say this is because a good courier company can help you in packing your items. This does not mean that they will come to you and pack the items themselves, but will assist you in providing a set of practical guidelines on how you should package your items depending on the size and type of item which is always more helpful than figuring it all out yourself, especially in an emergency delivery.

Although we mentioned above that you will receive advice from your courier company on how you should package your fragile goods, we decided to give you a basic step-by-step process that you can follow to package your fragile goods as well.

A basic guide for packaging your fragile goods

The first ever thing that you must obviously do before you start packaging is to identify the true nature of the item you plan on delivering. Is it a medical sample that requires to be temperature controlled, is it an item that must be shockproofed or is it an item that should not be bent like a legal document or a certificate? Identifying the nature of the product will help you pick out the best material to package the item with so that you can prevent the items from being damaged by that potential damage causes.

Here are some guidelines for packing common fragile goods:

• For documentation such as certificates or any other documentation that you need not be bent or folded, make sure to put them in an envelope or a flat package that is made out of hard cardboard material. Also, for extra safety measures, make sure to paste a “do not bend or fold” sticker so that the people who handle the delivery know.

• For a bit larger items such as electronic equipment such as cameras, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc. Make sure to put the product’s original box wrapped in bubble wrap into another box that is filled with soft form to ensure maximum protection while being transported. Make sure to stick a “fragile” sticker on the box as well.

• If you have very large fragile items such as large ceramic items, you should get a box that is a bit hard material such as a box made out of wood. Make sure to fill that box with soft form layers while also wrapping the ceramic item with bubble wrap. Also, make sure to paste fragile stickers all around the box.

• Medical supplies are also another common delivery item that needs special care. While delivering medical suppliers such as samples, always make sure to put the samples in a box with layers of soft form and wrap the outer box with bubble wrap along with a sticker saying “This way up” so that it says the correct way up and another sticker saying the item being delivered is a medical sample so that it is handled with the utmost care.

Additional Resources

• When you are trying the deliver something, it can be a bit of a hassle to find the packaging material, especially in an emergency delivery. In such instances, you can find cardboard boxes from a local supermarket as they tend to have lots of them just getting ready to be thrown away.

• When you hire a courier company to deliver your fragile goods, make sure to get a confirmation from them saying that they take full responsibility if anything happens to that item being delivered. A well-reputed courier company will always take full responsibility for the goods they deliver but if you have to hire a courier service that you have never heard of before or are new to the business, make sure to get a written confirmation. This will help like a charm if something happens to your fragile items while being delivered.

• Before you hand over your packaged delivery to the courier company, make sure to properly weigh and measure the dimensions of the package and clearly mentioned them on the packaging. This is especially helpful if you are delivering internationally as there are some instances where the packages are ripped open to ensure nothing illegal is being delivered and there can be faults with the repackaging. Having all your details on the package itself will help in this situation, although there may be instances where the packages are opened even if you have mentioned all the details on the packaging as well.

• If you opt-in to the same-day courier, your package is most likely to be picked up within an hour and you might not have time to package the goods properly in such a short time frame. Therefore, make sure to package your goods before you confirm the delivery so that you have enough time for the packaging process and you also can get some advice from the courier company on how to pack your specific item as well.

• Also, print out the delivery label that contains details such as the delivery address, and all other information very clearly and paste it over the opening of the package like a seal if the courier company emails you one. If not, the courier company will print it out themselves and paste it on the packaging.

Wait for pickup

Once you have completed all the steps from choosing a good courier company to packaging your goods, the only step left is to wait for the courier company to pick up your delivery. Once the courier company arrives for pick up, make sure to mention to them what is being delivered and request their opinions on your packaging, and ask them if there is anything that you could do to increase the safety of the goods a bit more. This is a good way for you to get an expert’s on-hand opinion on the guarantee of safety of your items being delivered.

There you go, a complete guide to transporting and packaging fragile goods. If you found this resource valuable, please make sure to share this and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us or leave a comment here.

The post A Guide To Packing And Transporting Fragile Goods appeared first on AAWI Enterprise LTD.

If your packages are not delivered on time, or if they are damaged while delivering, your business will seriously get hit with a bad reputation although it was not your fault but of the courier service you hired to deliver them.

This is why choosing a good courier service company is important and in order for you to not have this problem ever occur to you, we have put together a sort of checklist that you can refer to when choosing a courier service for your business or even for your personal use.

Therefore, without any more delay, let’s get right into it.

1. Customer Service

The customer service of the courier company is very important. If you are delivering a high value or confidential items like letters and other luxury goods, you have to have good communication with the courier company.

As this is the case, if they start to doge your calls or lie about the delivery (trust us, this happens a lot) you will get frustrated and nervous about your delivery as that is the last thing you want as a business owner with all the other thousands of things on your mind.

Also, if your business delivers to your customers, the overall experience of the delivery will also influence the satisfaction rate of the customer. Therefore, if the delivery driver is rude or comes out with a bad attitude, your reputation will get affected even though the courier company was a third-party service you hired.

One simple way to avoid this is to read online reviews of the courier company before you reach out to them. This is a great way to know how that company has treated other customers just like you.

Also, you will also be able to identify the level of customer satisfaction you get with the initial phone call. Are they polite and helpful? Are they recommending you things?

These small communication points will allow you to get a clear idea of the customer care you will receive.

2. Security & Safety

There are some courier services that pay no attention to the goods being delivered. All they care about is getting the goods from point A to point B as soon as possible. This can result in damaged goods in delivery which you do not want in business deliveries on in any personal deliveries.

Also, there are some courier companies that handle confidential deliveries such as documents and letters that are not delivered in a confidential manner. They may switch delivery vehicles mid-way to save fuel or for other reasons they have which might result in that confidentiality being broken.

As this is the case with some courier services, you should clearly mention to the courier service company you are reaching out to that safety and security are your primary concern and check on what guarantees they offer to you on your delivery being delivered safely and securely.

If they do not guarantee the safety or if they say that they don’t take any responsibility for damaged delivery that is a clear red flag and you should move on from that company as soon as possible.

It would help you to make a choice if you read their online reviews as well. Make sure there are no bad reviews saying the goods delivered were damaged.

3. Speed of Delivery

The third thing that you need to look for in a courier service is their speed of delivery. A lot of unexpected things happen on a day-to-day basis and there may be instances where you will have to deliver something urgently.

In such cases, the courier service company you choose must be quick. Also, remember when we said that some companies focus mainly on the speed of delivery without any concerns for the safety of the goods being delivered? Well, here you will have to consider that as well. There is no point delivering your goods on time if they are damaged.

Therefore, when choosing a courier company, make sure that you get some sort of guarantee on both the time of delivery and the safety of the delivery as one without the other is no good. You can discuss these things during the initial discovery call.

One other additional tip here is to choose a courier company that has over 5 years of experience like AAWI Enterprise LTD as they know the ins and outs of each city and will be able to deliver your goods on time even on the busiest days.

4. Courier Areas Serviced

The areas that the courier service company covers are also an important factor when it comes to choosing a good company if you have goods to be delivered across the country or you want to do multi-drop deliveries or even if you need to deliver goods out of the country.

There are some courier companies out there that say they cover all locations but in reality, they don’t. They just hire another cheap courier service company that will deliver to those locations and act as middlemen getting a commission which is very risky as this will reduce the level of security and the safety of the goods being delivered.

To avoid this happening to you, make sure to request delivery tracking and get a clear confirmation that they are the only ones that will handle your delivery and that no other untrusted courier service will handle them.

As we mentioned above, if you are operating an eCommerce business or any other business that does deliveries nationwide or worldwide, it is better for you to have one courier service picked out for every delivery.

As this is the case you will have to have a good initial conversation with the courier company and mention to them all your requirements and come to a delivery partnership which will have you not stressed out as much if you pick several courier services to deliver your goods at different times.

5. The flexibility of the company

The flexibility of your courier company is another important thing that you must look into when choosing a good courier service company. This is especially important for business owners as they will have a lot of deliveries and there are certain situations where your courier service needs to be a little flexible to make some deliveries.

For example, let’s say that you have a sudden unscheduled delivery to be made. If all the delivery vehicles are out, the courier company must be able to work something out such as hire a third-party delivery vehicle that they trust and get your goods delivered.

If you give them regular business with your deliveries, they must be willing to be as much flexible as possible to keep you as their customer.

Therefore, make sure that the courier service you choose will offer flexible service and is always there to help you out in emergencies.

6. Service Price Points

If you are a business owner you must pay special attention to these prices as you will have to add these prices for your products to cover up the costs. If the prices are too high, your products will not be ordered and that is something that you don’t want to happen.

We know that the prices should be higher on this list, but it is not true. If you want the best courier service that guarantees safe delivery, is insured, and provide additional services along with great customer care, you will not be able to obtain such services cheaply.

Also, there are some courier services that charge ridiculous prices which you should avoid. A good work around this is the get quotations from several other courier companies compare them with each other and make your decision.

Please note that when we say “comparer” we don’t mean just the price. You will have to compare their overall service as well such as the customer care, the reputation, flexibility and etc.

7. Warehousing Facilities

There can be certain instances where you need warehousing facilities to store your goods before delivering such as when you are a wholesaler delivering goods to retailers in specific areas. In such instances, you will need warehousing and if your courier service company does not have its own warehousing facilities you will have to rent one out which will make it more expensive and more stressful to handle. 

On the other hand, if you choose a courier service that provides warehousing you will be able to store and deliver all your goods in one place which will make it easy and stressless at the same time making it cost efficient as well.

Note that warehousing facilities are not a must if you just need day-to-day deliveries done. This is a factor that you should only consider if you need storing facilities along with your delivery facilities.

8. Vehicle Fleet availability

There can be jobs that require specific vehicles such as temperature controlled or heavy load trucks such as eighteen wheelers. If your courier company does not have access to these vehicles, you will be in trouble.

With that said, make sure that the courier service you are choosing have access to a wide range of vehicle fleet that can cater to any delivery you might have to make.

Some may think that this is not something that they wouldn’t need but, trust us, it is better to be prepared than to be sorry after a sudden requirement arises.

Conclusions

There you go, eight factors to consider when choosing a courier service. Now that you are aware of these eight factors, we now hope that you will make the right choice and make sure your deliveries are made smoothly, safely, and on time.

The post How To Choose A Good Courier Service Company appeared first on AAWI Enterprise LTD.