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The main goal of packaging is to get your products to your customers in the same condition in which they leave your facility – whether you’re the manufacturer or the distributor. But, once these loads are put in the back of a truck and start their journey, what happens next is completely out of your control. If your loads aren’t stretch wrapped effectively or your trailers packed appropriately, all of your products could be at risk of sustaining shipping damage.

Damage can be both visible and invisible: dented boxes or shifted pallets to damaged products inside the pallet because of shifting pressure. And it’s wasting company’s time and money and could be costing them their reputation.

Think of a pallet of 2 liter soda bottles that have fallen all over the back of a truck. The impact of the fall might have caused some bottles to explode covering the rest with sticky soda residue. These products are unsellable and must be disposed of.

Or what about food? Imagine raw chicken or beef being tossed around, causing contamination of other packages and the truck itself.

When retailers open the truck doors to damaged goods, chances are they’ll be frustrated and many will shut the doors and send the truck right back to the manufacturer. If this happens repeatedly, they might reconsider carrying the products. As a customer, if you open your boxes and consistently find damaged goods inside, you’re going to rethink purchasing from that manufacturer or that retailer because you don’t know where the damage may have occurred. Damaged products that make their way to store shelves can harm your brand’s reputation.

Think about a dented can of soup on the grocery store shelf. Do you reach for it or do you go for the one behind it? Most likely consumers will push the dented can aside and grab one that’s in good condition, or worse reach for the competitive brand.

Damage is expensive. It includes all the costs from raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, clean up, disposal, and replacement. The fact is there’s too much damage and its cost are too high. It’s been reported that 0.5% of food and consumer goods products shipped are damaged. It may not seem like much, but globally, damage is costing companies close to $60 billion every year. The good news is that shipping damage doesn’t have to be a cost of doing business because much of this damage is avoidable.

About half of shipping damage is the result of ineffective stretch wrapping. Or lack of proper blocking and bracing in a trailer. Or simply poor quality packaging supplies. Simply by improving the quality of packaging and trailer loading, most companies can significantly reduce shipping damage.

Source: Packaging Insights