How to pack a box in 5 easy steps

How to pack a box in 5 easy steps

During its journey a parcel will be handled many times from A to B. It goes onto a conveyor belt system, drops into a cage and, more than likely, has lots of other parcels of different weights and sizes stacked on top of it. Knowing this, you can understand why we put so much emphasis on good packing. To help you, we’ve compiled our top 5 tips for effective packaging.

1. Use a good, solid box that is suitable for its contents, making sure that there’s enough space around the item/s to lessen friction.

2. Wrap everything in bubble wrap. Newspaper really doesn’t offer any protection at all and should only be used as a filler.

3. Use a suitable layer of polystyrene chips to act as a cushion at the bottom of the box. Then get your bubble-wrapped items and place them in the middle of the box, making sure that they don’t touch each other or the sides of the box.

4. Pack out the box with more poly chips to prevent the contents from moving inside.

5. Tape up the box with some brown packing tape as it’s much more effective than Sellotape. Always make sure you put three layers on and always remember to tape up the bottom of the box as well. We see so many boxes coming in that have got 10-20 layers on top and just the one underneath.

BONUS TIP: If you’re using an old box (and we try to re-use boxes as much as possible), just take off all the old labels, all the old addresses and any markings on there so that the couriers and carriers don’t get confused with where they’re meant to be taking their parcels.

All these tips are really important. We see so much coming through our network that’s insufficiently packed, and people wonder why things get damaged. An extra 5 minutes and a couple of pounds on packing materials can save a whole load of potential heartache.

If you’d like a visual demonstration you can watch our ‘how to pack a box’ video here 

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We have worked with Spicer International for many years. They play a vital part in our business, keeping our import records in check, as well as sending and receiving our exports and imports that connect us to the world. Their attitude is that nothing is ever too much trouble and always follow through to ensure the job is completed, keeping us very happy indeed. I would highly recommend Spicer to any company out there who ships goods either within the UK or globally.
Gavin Comer, Aero Technics Ltd