subject: Packaging Freight For Rain Transport [print this page] It doesn't matter where you are; no place in the country is completely safe from rain. If you're shipping goods with a Northwest Arkansas courier, it is a good bet that your shipment is going to be transferred between vehicles several times before it reaches its destination. The further you are shipping, the more often it is likely to be transferred. That is why it is important that you protect all of the packages that you ship from the rain.
When you're shipping things long distance, it becomes clear that your packages could become exposed to the rain several times over the course of the journey. Don't think that just because you checked the weather and it looked clear that it will stay that way. Weather is always unpredictable, and small, localized showers are often not predicted accurately.
Just because your shipments are going to be exposed to the rain, it doesn't mean that they have to be vulnerable. There are some steps that any experienced shipper can take to help make sure that their packages don't sustain any damage if they do happen to get a little wet when they're being transferred between vehicles.
One of the best ways to do this is to always assess how badly damaged anything you're shipping could be damaged if it got wet. If it is something that would become totally destroyed, you should seal it inside its outer packaging. For example, if you're shipping a valuable book inside just a cardboard box, you should also seal that book inside a plastic bag. Freezer bags with a zip seal are an excellent choice for protecting anything against moisture that will fit in them.
On the other hand, you also need to protect anything that is breakable from the threat of moisture from the rain, even if the item itself wouldn't be wrecked if it got wet. In this instance, the worry is more about the packaging giving way. More than one expensive glass ornament has been broken because the box it was packed in got wet and had the bottom tore away. Avoid this problem by packing anything that is very breakable in double boxes. That way, if the outer box happens to get rained on a little bit, you can be sure that the entire packaging won't tear away. Proper packaging will also help any insurance claims you need to make if a shipment should happen to get damaged.
