“Shrink Wrap: A Blessing and a Curse”

Written by Phil Loynes

Shrink Wrap: A Blessing and a Curse

The Blessing

Shrink wrap and pallet wrap is a popular packaging material for palletised goods. It is a thin, clear plastic film that is applied to the palletised goods using heat. The heat causes the shrink wrap to shrink, tightly wrapping the goods together.

There are many benefits to using shrink wrap for palletised goods. Here are some of the most important benefits:

Protection: Shrink wrap provides excellent protection for palletised goods. It helps to protect the goods from damage caused by moisture, dirt, and dust. Shrink wrap can also help to protect the goods from theft and tampering. It helps to secure palletised goods during shipping and transportation, and helps to prevent the goods from shifting or falling off the pallet. This can help to reduce the risk of damage to the goods and to the pallet.

Visibility: Shrink wrap can help to improve the visibility of palletised goods. By wrapping the goods in a clear plastic film, shrink wrap makes it easy to see what is on the pallet. This can help to speed up the loading and unloading of goods, and can also help with customs inspections.

Branding: Shrink wrap can be used to promote your brand. By printing your logo or other branding information on the shrink wrap, you can help to raise awareness of your brand and to increase customer loyalty.

Overall, there are many benefits to using shrink wrap for palletised goods. It is a versatile packaging material that can help to protect, secure, and save space.

The Curse

As much as shrink wrap might be a good idea for palletised goods, couriers dislike using shrink wrap to package parcels for a number of reasons.

It is difficult to remove. Shrink wrap can be difficult to remove, especially if it has been applied tightly. This can be a problem if the courier needs to inspect the contents of the parcel, or if customs needs to inspect the goods.

It can be a safety hazard. If shrink wrap is not properly applied, it can come loose and create a tripping hazard.

If the shrink wrap is applied over the label, it can make it difficult to scan the barcode on the parcel, which can delay delivery.

Shrink wrap can get caught in the conveyor belts and other machinery at the courier’s depots and hubs, which can damage the parcel or the machinery.

This last reason is why most couriers will apply additional handling charges to parcels that are shrink wrapped. Whereas parcels packaged in corrugated cardboard will easily slide down the chutes and move along the conveyor belts in the automated hubs, shrink wrapped goods can sometimes get stuck. Best case scenario for the courier is that the goods take longer to move along their automated conveyor belts, while the worse case scenario is that the shrink wrapped goods cause a pile up and potentially damage other parcels or even the machinery itself.

This last reason is why most couriers will apply additional handling charges to parcels that are shrink wrapped. Whereas parcels packaged in corrugated cardboard will easily slide down the chutes and move along the conveyor belts in the automated hubs, shrink wrapped goods can sometimes get stuck. Best case scenario for the courier is that the goods take longer to move along their automated conveyor belts, while the worse case scenario is that the shrink wrapped goods cause a pile up and potentially damage other parcels or even the machinery itself.

You may have seen a similar scene when at the supermarket, where the checkout assistant slides your cereal boxes down the chute at the end of the conveyor belt, but the roll of bin bags just doesn’t want to slide down to you, and then the bananas get stuck behind it, and everything gets held up. In the case of the courier depots. The bananas are replaced by thousands of parcels.

Because of the potential damage caused by allowing shrink wrapped goods into the couriers network, they make sure to manually handle goods packaged like this, to ensure they make it through the hubs without causing damage to the shrink wrapped package or anything else. This means a human being being involved in the process at this point, which is more expensive than the automated hub that most of the goods will go through, and this is the reason for the additional handling charge. The goods are being additionally handled, due to the packaging they are in.

You will have seen courier branded bags, and asked why they are able to go on the conveyor belts, but shrink wrap can’t. The answer the couriers give is that they have tested their bags and know that they will slide, whereas shrink wrap is less likely to.

So while shrink wrap is potentially a great idea for palletised freight, think twice about using it for parcels sent with fast parcel couriers. The additional handling charges that are given out will definitely outweigh your savings from not buying boxes or the appropriate packaging.

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