The effect of packaging on transport costs.

Whether you use your own transport or work with freight companies to make deliveries, transport costs can stack up.  You might not realize it, but any packaging you use will have a direct impact on your transport efficiency, and costs.

So, what should you consider when it comes to packaging and its effect on transport?

The size of your packaging can have a big knock-on effect. If any of your boxes or bags are too big for your products, you will need extra void fill which adds to the pack weight AND they will take up more cubic space.

In turn, this means you will get less on a pallet or incur higher freight costs if they are calculated by volume.

So, it is important not to take a “one size fits all” approach when it comes to your packaging. Think about the overall packaging footprint and how best to pack a product to minimize the space it uses.  If your volumes are high enough, you could invest in automated solutions that size your packaging for you – so each pack is optimized.

The heavier your packaging, the heavier your overall pack weight will be.  This directly impacts the amount of fuel your delivery vehicles use, and the CO2 created during transport.

To reduce your overall packaging weight, you need to consider the outer box and any internal protective materials. You should aim to strike a balance between using enough material to prevent damages and not excessively packing your product to lower waste and overall pack weight. A great example of this would be switching to a performance grade cardboard that is engineered to be lighter but still performs like a heavier weight board.

Optimizing your palletization can help you ship more products in fewer journeys.  This is where packaging that is the right size for your product will be important – if it is too big you could lose valuable space on your pallet.

Just a small pack size reduction could have a big impact.  For example, decreasing pack height by a few inches could allow you to add an extra layer of product. This extra layer would allow you to reduce the number of pallets you use, meaning you can use less transport – delivering financial and environmental saving.

Our packaging review service can help you analyze your complete packing operation from start to finish.  The information we gather can help us identify key areas for improvement that could deliver significant savings across areas like transport and productivity