Only way with glass is to use pallet delivery , still have to allow for some breakage though.
What quantities /sizes do you ship and what is your breakage percent ?
I think we used to allow for 20 % on some stuff.
At one point we tried to use wine merchants as a pickup point , similar to argos .
These days packaging is considered to have trace on it so even the packaging would need a licence to possess.
Yep, it is a nightmare. Rather not get in to specifics but we are talking a lot of parcels (ie not just a few a day) all to individual customers (many 1 box, some 2, some more and we do use pallet delivery for those who order larger quantities.
At the moment breakages are around 5% (it's drinks, so that includes everything from 1 bottle out of a case damaged to the whole case damaged which is less common). It's far higher than we had with a previous courier but they priced themselves out of the game (yes, you get what you pay for but you also have to be able to pay for it, and customers don't want to pay for delivery at all these days - thanks Amazon )
The courier accepts the rate is high and thinks it should be less than 2%.
Something is wrong, and we know it's not the packaging.
jago2:
The courier accepts the rate is high and thinks it should be less than 2%.
Might that mean that the courier management would be as interested as you are in the results from a few test parcels with an Arduino based recording system?
Is there any pattern to the breakages - for example those passing though some intermediate transfer points and not others? Or different days of the week?
It is a shame that those ShockWatch things are so pricey. They seem to be the only one in that market, maybe they have it locked down with a patent. They are kind of fancy with the unique bar codes so you can tell they weren't swapped.
I noticed they also sell an electronic version called the "ShockLog" and even the used ones are selling in the hundreds of dollars. You could definitely go much cheaper than that with a Pro Mini, accelerometer, SD card, RTC, and battery but I guess if you're trying to use it for something official like an insurance claim the data from a DIY recorder might not be as good for evidence.
make your packaging open so any fluids leak out an get all over every other parcel.
color your boxes brightly so the carries becomes familiar with the ones that ruin lots of others when they get bumped too hard.
all my glass from shipments are wrapped in expanded paper and the final wrapping increases the physical size to twice that of the bottle.
also, Styrofoam top and bottom fitted holders can allow for a lot of G forces.
if you think your packaging is good, can you drop test from 2 meters feet successfully ? that would be on each side and each corner ? that would be close to falling off of a stacked pallet or falling off of a tractor trailer lift gate
Something is wrong, and we know it's not the packaging.
Not to be argumentative, but exactly how do you know that?
I would offer that if the packaging is good, there would be no broken shipments.
the greater the transportation hazzards, the greater the packaging has to be.
with this new information.
spend a couple hundred dollars on sensors with GPS and tilt sensors and impact sensors. replace one bottle with this package and lable it for retrun shipping.
offer a discount to your furthest customerr or into the area of greatest breakage.
so your customer sends the package back for your use.
getting hard data cannot be replaced with speculation.
I think this focus on technology is misplaced. The carrier isn't likely interested in making a sea change to their entire organization just because one customer busts them on one flaw. Not unless you can make it go viral on social media or something like that...
aarg:
Not to be argumentative, but exactly how do you know that?
Because we've been using it for many years with many couriers, including our last one that we had for several years. And the QA guy at our depot has personally visited us a number of times, checked it, watched us pack etc.
dave-in-nj:
Not to be argumentative, but exactly how do you know that?
I would offer that if the packaging is good, there would be no broken shipments.
the greater the transportation hazzards, the greater the packaging has to be.
There's a difference between good and bullet proof. The packaging costs have to be proportionate to the goods shipped. We could use fully protected styrofoam packaging (not that we would for environment reasons) and reduce breakages overnight, but it simply costs too much for what we sell.
Our packaging has been approved and tested by QA at the depot. It's good enough. Some will always break, that's a fact of life. We don't expect 0% breakages. But we don't expect 5% either.
jago2:
There's a difference between good and bullet proof. The packaging costs have to be proportionate to the goods shipped. We could use fully protected styrofoam packaging (not that we would for environment reasons) and reduce breakages overnight, but it simply costs too much for what we sell.
Our packaging has been approved and tested by QA at the depot. It's good enough. Some will always break, that's a fact of life. We don't expect 0% breakages. But we don't expect 5% either.
once you have the hard data of what occurs during transport, the solution will be evident.
I think you are on the right track by using an Arduino to monitor a few packages with a plethora of sensors. if you can decrease breakage by a simple adjustment, then the costs are well worth the investigation.
There is an old saying that it takes 90% of the time to complete 90% of the project and another 90% of the time to complete 90% of the remaining, and another 90% of the time to complete 90% of what is left and another..........
you are in a similar situation, you figured out how to save 90%...
to save 90% of the remainder, you need to do X
but until you know the requirements, all is just guessing and often people just throw $$$$ to reach an acceptable result and never figure it out.
Not to be argumentative, but exactly how do you know that?
Because we've been using it for many years with many couriers, including our last one that we had for several years. And the QA guy at our depot has personally visited us a number of times, checked it, watched us pack etc.
This suggests fairly clearly that the problem rests with the cheaper courier you are using.
So the question you have to face is whether the savings (compared to your previous courier) offset the cost and inconvenience of the breakages.
I know you said earlier "you get what you pay for but you also have to be able to pay for it" - but maybe you have simply got to the unacceptable bottom?
Boardburner2:
I am not sure this data would be useful though.
Even if you can pinpoint the problem area would the courrier do anything about it.
Hand sorting happens sometimes using part time staff.
the point is that there are multiple forces at work.
held at 4 ft and dropped so it would impact flat is one force
held at 4 ft on the side and impact flat is another force and would require different packaging to protect
held at a 45deg and impact on a corner would be yet another wild guess of what is happening in the actual journey from shipping to delivery.
if half of the impacts are from flat bottom, then a single layer of bubble wrap on the bottom could reduce damage by 50%.
if half the impacts are flat sided, then 4 walls of bubble wrap might reduce breakage by 50%.
of course the idea you could just put a double wrap around the whole thing and eliminate breakage is possible as well. but the larger box and added protection is costs that may not be needed.
Also, if you find out that your pick-up driver is causing 100% of your breakage and after it leaves that first terminal, there is zero breakage....
we can go on taking wild guesses.
Robin2:
Because we've been using it for many years with many couriers, including our last one that we had for several years. And the QA guy at our depot has personally visited us a number of times, checked it, watched us pack etc.
This suggests fairly clearly that the problem rests with the cheaper courier you are using.
So the question you have to face is whether the savings (compared to your previous courier) offset the cost and inconvenience of the breakages.
I know you said earlier "you get what you pay for but you also have to be able to pay for it" - but maybe you have simply got to the unacceptable bottom?
...R
kind of like :
you can use the older carrier
you can add more protective packaging.
jago2:
Because we've been using it for many years with many couriers, including our last one that we had for several years. And the QA guy at our depot has personally visited us a number of times, checked it, watched us pack etc.
Robin2:
So the question you have to face is whether the savings (compared to your previous courier) offset the cost and inconvenience of the breakages.
I know you said earlier "you get what you pay for but you also have to be able to pay for it" - but maybe you have simply got to the unacceptable bottom?
...R
I think you have it.
I mentioned earlier a 20% breakage rate ,That was for vacuum solar tubes.
At that point we gave up as costs were too high for us to be competitive.
They travel fine on pallets but when broken down into indvidual manufacturers packets breakage became unacceptable.
There were other reasons as well but that was the final decider.
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