Freight Shipping Guide: Boxes, Pallets, Crates

The freight shipping industry goes through millions of boxes, pallets, and crates each year. We can’t just throw everything on a ship and ship it somewhere, but a thought has to be spared for how (and in what) everything gets packaged. Here’s what you should know about the use of boxes, pallets, and crates in the freight shipping industry.

Freight Shipping Guide: Boxes, Pallets, Crates

Ideal packaging for freight shipping has to match up with certain important criteria. The first necessary attribute is strength, while the second is sustainability. Boxes, pallets, or crates can only be a viable packaging method when they are cost-effective and keep cargo intact for the shipping process. The quest for sustainable packaging is on. If you aren’t using the right supplier for boxes, pallets, and crates, it could cost both your business and your own customers more than the goods are worth. 

Boxes

Boxes are popular as a sustainable form of packaging. The entire world knows that after boxes are done for in the shipping industry they are beloved by cats everywhere – or recycled back to be used for something else, including sometimes even art or cosplay.

What makes for a good box?

Cardboard is a versatile, strong material when it’s put together in the correct way. The shipping industry requires bulkier, heavier, and thicker boxes for their strength (as opposed to smaller boxes for consumer items). Cardboard boxes can, in theory, handle a considerable amount of stress while leaving the contents perfectly intact. A cardboard box is the least expensive way to package a product, and its sustainability makes it perfect for the shipping industry as a whole.

Pallets

Pallets are the next step in the shipping chain and are made from sustainable and cheap forms of wood held together by staples or nails. Although pallets don’t package anything, companies use them as stacking platforms on which boxes or crates will sit during transit. Well-constructed pallets ensure that cargo remains in one place for the entire. journey. Pallets are easy to pick up and transport with a forklift once they reach their final destination.

Pallets are also in high demand once they are no longer usable in the shipping industry. In fact, pallets can be disassembled and put to a thousand different uses, including cheap lumber for making furniture and more. Therefore, pallets never go to waste – and go straight back into the system to be upcycled, recycled, or used again.

Crates

Crates aren’t just a staple of the average horror movie. As a matter of fact, crates are one of the most important packaging materials you’ll see in the shipping industry. Crates are used for their durability, and also because they come in every shape and size you could possibly need to ship anything in. While crates might be more expensive than boxes, they are essential and just as sustainable as both boxes and pallets. Once a crate has lived out its use for the shipping industry, it can be recycled or reused in a number of ways.

Additional Reading: How SmartWay Advances Sustainable Transportation Supply Chains

The Junction LLC | Truckload Shipping

As a leader in the transportation industry, we demand excellence from our entire team. Our team at The Junction LLC strives to deliver the best possible customer service and by a desire to solve our customer’s toughest transportation and supply chain needs.

Our team is dedicated to serving our customers and will take the necessary action to deliver our customers’ products safely, efficiently, and on time. In fact, this is our promise to you!

Nationwide Services include:

• FTL (Full Truck Load) Shipping
• LTL (Less Than Truck Load) Shipping
• Transportation of refrigerated, dry, and bulk shipments
• 3PL Warehousing and Logistics
• Contract Warehousing
• Trucking Freight Brokerage

Trucking & Freight Shipping Services:

• Overweight,
• Over-dimension
• Time-sensitive shipments
• LTL (Less-Than-Truckload)
• FTL (Full Truckload)
• Flatbed
• Flatbed LTLRGN (removable gooseneck lowboy)
• RGN (removable gooseneck lowboy)
• Maxi’s / A-Train / B-Train
• Heavy Haul
• Over Dimensional
• Dry Van
• Dry Van LTL
• Refrigerated
• Refrigerated LTL
• Power Only

Additional Services:

• Our sister companies can also provide warehousing in our food-grade facilities, cross-docking, and contract warehousing.

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Nebraska Warehouse One-Stop-Shop | TechnologyEnabled 3PL Value-Added Services Warehouse | Freight Broker | Logistics

Nebraska Warehouse doesn’t just help to facilitate your shipments, but we are truly a one-stop-shop solutions provider. Our services include:

• Full Truckload (FTL) Shipping
• Less Than Truckload (LTL) Nationwide Carriers & Shipping
• Trucking Freight Brokerage