How to Ship Fragile Items

Fragile items are among the hardest commodities to ship. Special care must be used throughout the entire process. Not only are the shippers counting on their good arriving safely, but there are many considerations to think about in packaging to make that happen. Fragile items such as glass will do best if wrapped separately. If there are any parts of the item that are not fragile, these too should be wrapped separately. Once wrapped, the pieces should be packed in to the smallest possible box or crate and loaded as tightly as possible to minimize the amount of shifting of the goods once inside. With all fragile goods, the least amount of handling is the best way to move the shipment. If it is a small shipment, it might be best to consider airfreight. If it will need to be sent by ocean container or LTL, the packaging will need to be tight and loaded with the least amount of space between boxes on pallets as well as the pallets themselves. Shrink wrapping or plastic wrapping is also advisable so that even if the pallet shifts, the boxes will not knock into each other. If possible, wrap in a sign that says "Fragile" into the sides as well. Then in loading the pallets, it is best to keep the height short. The lower, the better since the more pallets are stacked, the more trouble it will be to keep them stable once moving. If everyone handling the pallets is aware of the how fragile the goods are and the pallets are packed tightly there should be no reason the goods should have trouble arriving safely and intact.