Dunnage is the shipper's best friend of fragile items. Filler material refers to any filling material used to protect products from damage during shipping. This includes bubble wrap, inflatable pillows, peanuts for packing, plastic or wood holders and dividers, kraft paper, foam and corrugated paper. Shipping fragile items can be risky.
Harsh traffic conditions often damage fragile items such as glassware, ceramics, technological devices and musical instruments. Boxes can be thrown, dropped, hit, flipped and flipped. You can't control the condition in which your package is or the way in which carriers handle it when it arrives to your customer. Fragile items, such as plants and musical instruments, must be securely placed in the packaging to prevent them from being broken.
The most important thing to keep in mind with these items is that they could move during transport, so any space surrounding your items should be filled with eco-friendly packaging peanuts, paper and other packaging materials. This way, fragile pieces stay in place and are less likely to move, meaning they're more likely to reach their new homes undamaged. Luna London Candles has a wonderful YouTube video in which the owner Ishani Parbhoo shows how to package fragile items, such as candles, and you can see it below. Air pillows work well to fill larger spaces in boxes, especially when an item is too small for its box.
It's important to have the right packaging materials for your fragile item, but your item won't be properly protected without the right box. There is no universal type of packaging that can be used across the entire product range, and the five main types cover most applications. Carriers like USPS have specific guidelines for shipping items such as food, plants and flexible products. However, using the right packaging materials for fragile items helps to prevent items from moving during transport.
It includes a wide variety of products that can be molded and cut into the shape that best suits a particular item. This may seem like a no-brainer, but when it comes to ensuring that fragile items are treated with care, it's helpful to let people handling the package know that it's fragile. Below, we've included an infographic from FedEx to better illustrate how to package these items. You can try your best and package your delicate item until an inch of its useful life is used up, but eventually there will come a point where the package will be out of your control.
Ideally, the box should have room for at least two inches of padding to cushion all sides of the item. Make sure that the box you choose is big enough that you can place the protective packaging around the item, but not big enough that it bounces around the box.
