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Pallet Delivery Tips for the Small Business

December 19, 2017 by Susan Brooks

Pallet delivery services: tips for small businesses

 

Small businesses can often be more susceptible to bottlenecks in delivery and transport than larger ones. This can be due to smaller working spaces, less employees in devoted transport and packing roles or a host of other reasons.

It can also be devastating to the finances of a small business to have undelivered stock cluttering up your premises. It is using up space that may be needed for successive production runs, holding too much stock on site can be an insurance nightmare and finally it is not out there in the world making you money – it is sat in your warehouse or factory doing no good to anyone!

If you want to avoid this, then you simply must look at the way you utilise and deliver your pallets. Yes, it may sound dull; it may even sound somewhat patronising. I felt the same until I did it – and I saw the savings in time and money that were possible by efficiently employing my pallet stock.

The first thing that you must ensure is that you maximise your available pallet space. Quite frankly, you need to look at the packed pallets before they go out and, if you are seeing excessive gaps in the pallets then you must consider that as literally paying for empty air.

Consider training for yourself or your staff members who handle the packing and loading of your pallets. Many transport companies for example offer in-house training schemes to help their customers use their pallet efficiently.

Pallets with too much empty space, in addition to wasting money, can also allow too much movement of the packed items that can lead to damages during transport. Treat your pallets therefore like a real-life game of Tetris, and get all of those gaps filled up!

By the same token however, you do not want to overload your pallet. Too much weight on one pallet can lead to the lower levels of packed products being crushed or otherwise damaged by the top layers. In addition, if bulky items are placed too high on pallets, especially atop smaller items, the pallet stack can become top heavy and topple, posing a serious risk to your products and your staff.

Pack larger items on the bottom, smaller lighter items on top and ensure the pallet is well secured – whether by ratchet straps or plastic wrap. Also don’t be tempted to overhang items to gain that little bit of space – they are likely to be damaged in transport.

Finally, make sure your logistic company is up to the job. The internet makes it easy to research companies these days, so see if you can find reviews and testimonials online. The company should, broadly speaking, be arriving within its promised collection times more often than not – though you can often save some money by having flexible collection windows.

Finally, their vehicle fleet should contain clean, well-maintained trucks and vans, and they should come in a variety of sizes so that they can always send the appropriate sized vehicle to collect from you.

If your business lies at the end of a winding, narrow road and your logistics company keeps sending  massive 1- wheel articulated lorries, it may be time to look elsewhere!