3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Shipping Perishables
Shipping perishables is hard. Small mistakes lead to spoiled goods and unhappy customers. To help you keep your perishables fresh and your customers satisfied, here are three common mistakes to avoid when shipping perishable items, along with a smarter solution to make your life easier.
Mistake #1: Sticking to a Binary Packaging System: Summer & Winter
Ever heard of the “one size fits all” approach? Well, it doesn't work for perishable shipping. Categorizing your packaging into just summer and winter packouts might seem simple, but it's actually a recipe for disaster. This method leads to overicing since you're preparing for the worst-case scenario: the hottest summer and the warmest winter. Additionally, if I’m shipping from Chicago to Miami in December, is that a Winter or Summer Shipment?
For instance, packing for the warmest summer conditions means you'll end up using more ice than necessary if the temperatures are milder. This not only wastes ice but also increases your shipping costs and weight. Similarly, preparing for the coldest winter conditions can lead to excessive ice use. The solution? A more nuanced approach that considers the actual shipping conditions, not just the season.
Mistake #2: Relying on Destination Temperatures
Using the destination temperature to determine the amount of ice required can cause major problems. Why? Because it ignores the temperature variations along the route, leading to overicing or undericing.
Imagine shipping from Chicago to Denver in December. While Denver might be in the mid-50s, the Great Plains could be in the 20s. Using Denver's temperature to decide on ice amounts would result in overicing for the whole journey. On the flip side, shipping from Miami to Chicago in December means navigating through a mix of warm and cold temperatures. Relying on Chicago's colder climate would result in undericing, credits, and unhappy customers.
Mistake #3: Using a One-Size-Fits-All Coolant Strategy
Choosing a coolant strategy based on the number of days in transit is another common pitfall. Many shippers pack one block of ice for each day of transit, regardless of the temperature on the route or the thermal properties of the items.
Under this strategy, a one-day shipment from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in the summer will be completely spoiled on arrival while a three-day shipment from Chicago to Boston in the winter will be ultra cooled. This approach ignores the heat capacity of the items and the weather forecast along the route, leading to inefficient cooling.
The Smart Solution: KeepIt.Cool
Say goodbye to guesswork and inefficiency with KeepIt.Cool, the ultimatecoolant recommendation engine. Our cutting-edge thermal modeling softwarepredicts the route, the weather, and how the thermal mass of each shipmentinteracts with heat exposure along the delivery journey. This ensures yourperishables stay perfectly cool, reducing waste, cost, and the risk ofspoilage.
In conclusion, by avoiding these common mistakes and adopting a smarter,data-driven approach to shipping perishables, you can keep your goods fresh andyour customers happy. Let KeepIt.Cool revolutionize your shipping strategy andbring precision and reliability to every delivery.