Damage You Know About
We all know about truck load shipping failure like this in Photo 1 or about products damaged during shipment like those in Photo 2. This is visible damage — catastrophic damage we see or hear about. This is the damage that winds up in reclamation and reprocessing centers or even in landfills.
Damage You Don’t Know About
But there’s damage that we dont’ hear about or see. This is invisible damage. It’s subtle, non-catastrophic damage. It happens when only a small part of the shipment fails to arrive at its destination in “as made” condition. It can be something as simple as wasted time, extra effort and inconvenience of having to restack a pallet or two before they can be unloaded from a truck like in Photo 3.
Or maybe it’s only a few units or shipping cases on a single pallet that were scuffed, dented or crushed like those in Photo 4. If the marketing department or the sales team would want a product replaced at the point or sale for any of those reasons, then it’s damaged. The dollar cost of this damage may be small, but what does brand quality erosion cost you when your customers are presented with shoddy looking products?
Shipping Damage is Costing You Money
Whether damage is visible or invisible, there’s too much. And its cost is too high. The Grocery Managers Association (GMA) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) calculate that 5 percent of the gross shipments in the food, beverage and consumer products are lost to damage that happens between point of production and the point of sale. That’s $500,000 a year for $100 million company or $50,000 a year for a $10 million company. Those are serious losses.
Cut Your Shipping Damage in Half with Better Stretch Wrapping
The good news is that shipping damage doesn’t have to be a cost of doing business. Much of it’s avoidable. We’ve learned that better stretch wrapping can eliminate as much as half the damage that happens as your products ship to your customers.
Stop being victimized by shipping damage. Get your free copy of Lantech’s 10 Step Process for Damage Reduction Through More Effective Stretch Wrapping and start reducing your shipping damage today.
For more information, you can contact us on our website or call us at (502) 815-9109.
This post was published on June 27, 2014 and updated on July 20, 2015.
June 27, 2014
