Fragile cargo comes in many shapes and sizes. Whether the items you wish to ship hold purely sentimental value or are worth a fair amount of money, you’ll need to take measures to ensure their safety. This is particularly true in the case of business-related shipments. Companies that regularly ship computer hardware, machine components and other fragile items would be wise to protect this cargo. If your enterprise develops a reputation for shipping damaged or outright broken items, your professional reputation is likely to suffer. Businesses looking to keep their shipments safe can benefit from the following tips.
1. Seek Out a Dependable Transport Company
You’d be hard-pressed to find a transport company that never makes mistakes. Given the sheer volume of shipments these companies handle on a daily basis, the occasional slipup is inevitable. However, some transport companies make far fewer blunders than others, and if you’re shipping fragile cargo, it’s important to give your business to a company with a proven track record for reliability. With this in mind, seek out shipping companies with experience in transporting the type of cargo you wish to ship. The more experience they have with a certain type of cargo, the less likely they are to destroy or damage your shipment during its journey.
2. Invest in Monitoring Devices
Businesses that wish to keep track of shipments that are en route to their destinations should invest in monitoring devices. As the name implies, these devices are designed to track a shipment’s location and overall wellbeing. Monitoring devices also keep track of a broad spectrum of travel conditions, such as temperature and bumpiness. Adding to their convenience, you can find many connectivity options for monitoring devices, with Bluetooth and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) being among the most common. Furthermore, many of these devices log extreme temperatures and heavy impacts, thus providing recipients with a detailed rundown of potentially problematic transport conditions.
3. Control the Temperature
Extreme heat can cause irreparable damage to a number of fragile items. As such, companies that ship heat-sensitive cargo need to protect these items from undesirable temperatures. This is where temperature-control aids enter the picture. The exact type of cooling aid you’ll need depends on the cargo you wish to ship, but such items can usually be found at the same places that sell monitoring devices. Your preferred transport company may also be able to help you out in this area. Simply inform them that your shipment needs to be kept within a certain temperature range, and they should be able to make the proper arrangements.
Few things are more frustrating than having important cargo damaged in transit. Not only does this serve to annoy clients, it stands to negatively impact a business’s reputation. Fortunately, ensuring the safety of your shipments doesn’t have to be an arduous undertaking. When it comes to keeping valuable cargo safe, a little bit of foresight and common sense can go a long way. Companies looking to make damaged shipments a thing of the past should put the previously discussed pointers to good use.
