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Many businesses use pallet delivery to send their goods across the country on a daily basis. Whereas some companies will have their own delivery trucks to transport their pallets, many others will not have the resources or the budget for this, and so use a pallet courier service instead. This offers a business all the speed, security and convenience of the process without needing to provide their own fleet.
If you have decided to use a pallet courier for your UK deliveries, you need to ensure your goods are prepared in the correct way for a secure transit. Some pallet couriers will likely provide you with some guidance on doing this, but here are a few tips in advance:
Make sure your pallets are in solid condition
Whilst it may be tempting to package your goods on damaged pallets lying around your warehouse, it’s best to avoid this—not only could the boards break whilst the pallet is being placed onto the truck, they could actually break during the journey, causing the packages to fall, potentially damaging them and any others they collide with.
Prepare the goods before wrapping the pallet
Before wrapping the pallet itself, it is a good idea to actually wrap each package itself for further security. There are numerous materials you can use, such as cardboard, bubble wrap, or several layers of shrink wrap. Be sure that packages containing different items, or ones which are particularly fragile or valuable, are adequately labelled; this avoids confusion later on, and ensures they can be properly identified if they become separated from their pallet. You should also be sure the shrink wrap covers the base of the pallet itself rather than just the packages—no matter how well-wrapped the packages are, they could easily slide off at any time. Any company providing pallet courier services will expect you to prepare your packages properly, or they may provide this themselves for a small fee.
Arranging heavy items safely
For packages which are particularly heavy, you should strap or affix these to the pallet to ensure they do not break away during loading or transit. This also prevents them damaging any other packages if they become dislodged throughout the journey.
Watch your weight
Overloading a pallet is always a mistake—if your pallet is not damaged when being loaded into the truck, it may very well be by the end of the journey. Be sure to take care when stacking packages, and check the pallet’s stability throughout. Likewise, try to avoid placing heavy items on top of lighter ones—this could cause the pallet to tip and damage the ones underneath.
Ryan Evans is a keen blogger and part time journalist and enjoys contributing to a variety of websites such as Cheap Couriers.
