How To Ship Your Products Safely In The Winter
November 15, 2022
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Are you shipping products that are vulnerable to freezing damage this winter?
All kinds of stuff can be damaged by freezing, including makeup, coffee, and perishable foods. Winter weather can pose a serious threat to the quality of your packaging contents if you don’t take the right steps to protect your shipments from freezing.
In order to ship products safely in the winter, you need to use freeze-protection technologies like insulation and heat packs. Use temperature indicators when appropriate to ensure that your products aren’t freezing and thawing out again in transit.
And make sure you’re shipping your packages as quickly as possible, so they spend less time on the supply chain, vulnerable to freezing temperatures.
Use Freeze-Protection Technologies
Don’t be intimidated by the term “freeze-protection technologies.” It simply means things that can protect your package contents from freezing, like insulation and heat packages.
You should definitely pack your temperature-sensitive items with insulation. You can use styrofoam panels to insulate your boxes, or place package contents within a thermal box liner. Wrap your products in thermal bubble wrap.
If you’re shipping something that has to stay warm instead of just not freezing, put heat packs inside the insulation. Heat packs can keep items warm in transit for up to 40 hours.
They’re perfect for shipping live plants and animals in the wintertime. Gel packs can keep package contents cool, which can be useful for shipping fresh produce, fresh flowers, live seafood, and other heat-sensitive products, even in the winter.
You can also ask your carrier about shipping using temperature-controlled shipping. Usually, when people talk about temperature-controlled shipping, they’re talking about refrigerated trucks and containers – and though it might seem counterintuitive, refrigerated trucks do keep your products from freezing.
If you’re shipping something that needs to stay within a certain cool temperature range, refrigerated shipping is the best option. However, some carriers may also offer heated shipping for items that must be kept at a higher temperature.
Insert Temperature Indicators into Your Packages
You can’t always tell when something has been outside of its recommended safe temperature range during shipping.
If a shipment is delayed, heat packs or gel packs you’ve packed inside of your shipments might lose their efficacy, and you (and your recipient) will need to know how hot or cold the contents of your package have become in transit.
That’s where temperature indicators come in. If your shipping contents got too cold and froze, then thawed out later on before reaching their destination, a temperature indicator will tell you that.
Temperature indicators will change colors or otherwise indicate when a shipment has reached an unsafe temperature. That way, you and your customers will know when something isn’t safe, even if it seems safe.
You can even buy real-time temperature indicators that will alert you if a shipment is approaching an unsafe (either too hot or too cold) temperature, so you can reach out to the carrier and coordinate any changes that might be necessary to prevent damage to your shipment.
Keep Shipping Windows Small
Whenever you’re shipping perishable items, it’s always important to ship them as quickly as possible. You should always try to ship temperature-sensitive items overnight if you can.
Only use two-day shipping when you absolutely have to, and never use any slower shipping schedule. Keeping your shipping window as small as possible helps make sure that your products are still fresh and in good shape when they arrive.
If there is a delay in shipping, you have a better chance of your products still being fresh when they arrive if you chose the fastest shipping option.
Heat packs last about 40 hours, so that’s how long you have before the package contents start to get cold. If you’re using gel packs, those have a lifespan of about 24 to 36 hours before your package contents are at risk of warming up.
You should always ship temperature-sensitive items at the beginning of the week, especially if you’re using a carrier like USPS that doesn’t ship all seven days of the week.
Sending shipments on Monday or Tuesday minimizes the risk of a shipping delay due to a weekend shutdown. Again, that’s especially important if you’re sending items through the mail, but don’t assume your carrier will offer weekend service.
Make sure they will before you try to ship a temperature-sensitive shipment over the weekend.
When it comes to shipping products safely in cold weather, you have to take advantage of all the tools at your disposal. Packaging insulation, heat packs, and more can help you keep your products at a safe temperature range throughout shipping, so you can keep your customers happy.
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