Weak Packaging: Reading Cartons, Strapping and Shrink Wrap

Packaging tells the story of the journey before you open a single carton. A crushed corner, a slack strap, a wrap that has been torn and taped again: each says something about how the goods were packed and what they went through. The aim of reading packaging is not to blame anyone. It is to separate two things that are often mixed together: weak packing, which is a risk you can see, and damage, which is harm already done. Recording them apart makes your report easier to use, and it tells you whether the next order needs to be packed differently.

Cartons

• Board: thin, soft or crushed along the ribs of the corrugation, with frayed edges, rounded corners, and sides that bulge (overfilled) or cave in.
• Fit: a carton much too large for its contents, so that items can slide about, or too small, so that the contents press against the walls.
• Reuse: old printing, labels from another consignment, tape laid over earlier tape.
• Closing: tape on the centre seam only, thin or peeling tape, staples, or no tape at all.
• Marks of past wetting: tide lines, ripples in the board and stains.
• Stacking limit: many cartons print how many layers may be stacked on them. If the stack on your pallet is higher than the printed limit, record it.

Strapping and corner boards

Look at how the straps sit. They may be slack, cut, joined with a patch, too few for the height of the stack, or so tight that they bite into the cartons because there are no protectors under them. Corner boards may be missing, crushed or too short to reach the full height. Straps that run round the top layer only do not hold the pallet together.

Wrap, pallets and stacks

• Wrap: thin, applied round the top layers only, not tied to the pallet base, torn, or put over cartons that were already damp.
• Pallet: broken boards, missing blocks, protruding nails, or a pallet too small for the load so that the cartons overhang the edge. Measure the overhang in centimetres.
• Stack: height, the pattern in which the cartons are laid, columns stacked directly on one another rather than interlocked, mixed carton sizes in one layer, or heavy cartons resting on light ones.

Record weak packing separately from damage

Keep two headings in the log: observations (risk) and damage (harm). A weakly packed pallet may arrive undamaged, and a well-packed pallet may be damaged by rough handling, so one does not prove the other. Describe each plainly and do not link them with words such as "caused by". The reader can draw the link. Photograph the packing before any wrap or strap is cut, and photograph one well-packed pallet as well, so that the contrast is on record.

A conditional example. The shipment has 22 pallets. Weak packing is noted on 5 of them: pallets 3, 8, 9, 15 and 20. Pallet 8 stands 6 layers high, with the cartons overhanging by 6 cm on two sides, no corner boards, one of its two straps slack and wrap covering the top three layers only. Damage is found on 3 pallets: pallets 8, 15 and 21. On pallet 8 two cartons in the bottom layer have crushed corners. Pallet 21 had no remarks on its packing but has one carton with a torn side. The report lists the five pallets under observations and the three under damage, and notes that the two lists overlap on two pallets only. A supplier or carrier can see exactly what was weak, what was harmed and how much the two have to do with each other.

In short

Weak packing is information for the next order, and damage is evidence for this one. CargoChek checks the condition and the packing of the load, records weak packing separately from damage, and photographs every remark together with its label and number.