Confessions of a Compulsive Organizer

3 Things To Consider When Purchasing Shipping Crates For Your Business

by Ricardo Hart

If you have a large amount of product to move for your business, an economical way to move a significant amount of product at once can be through the use of shipping crates. Here are three things that you need to consider when purchasing shipping crates to move your product.

#1 Size Of The Crate

The first thing you need to know before you start purchasing shipping crates is what size of crate you actually need to purchase. Shipping creates come in a few standard heights, with the most common being 8ft 6in tall. These shipping crates are tall enough for you to stand-up in with extra room as well. If you need something a little shorter, most shipping crate companies also sell a few shorter crates.

The real variety in crates happens with the length of the crate. Crates can vary greatly in length; if you look at the products offered by multiple shipping companies, you'll see they carry a few different smaller crates that vary between six to ten feet long, then after that the length increases by five feet for each crate. 

You may want to tape off an area the size of the crate that you want to purchase to see how many units of your product you can fit in that area. Make sure you are using the internal measurements of the shipping crate, and not the external measurements, when you do this exercise. 

#2 How Much You Need To Ship

Second, you need to figure out how much you need to ship and where you need to ship it. This information will also help you figure out what size crate you need. 

For example, if you need to move fifty units of product to Detroit and Cleveland, you can probably put all that cargo in one appropriately sized crate. However, if you are shipping fifty units of product to Detroit and Los Angeles, you are probably going to want to ship two smaller crates to each destination. 

#3 Access To The Crate

Third, you need to figure out what type of access you need to the crate. Do you need a crate that doesn't have a top because the product will be added to the crate with a crane? Do you need a crate that opens on the short end of the crate so that you can drive your fork lift into the truck with your pallets? Or a crate that opens length wise for easier access? 

Think about how you want to add your products to the crate, and this should help you figure out what type of access you need to the crate. 

Before you purchase shipping crates to move your products, think about what you need to ship and how much space that those products will take up, where you need to ship your product to, and what type of access you need in order to load your product onto the crate. This information will help you purchase the right type of shipping crate for your business needs. For more information, contact local professionals like Portland Packaging Co Inc.

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