subject: What Packaging Items Do Couriers Provide? [print this page] Sometimes, people don't have the right expectations of their courier company. More often than not, this means that they expect things from them which are not normally within the realm of what is offered by a courier company. A good example of this is when someone expects their Houston courier service to provide them with packing materials. In almost every case, courier companies do not actually provide their customers with packing materials of any kind.
There are several good reasons why courier companies don't send out packing materials to their customers, but among the foremost is the problem that it would create in terms of their scheduling. People are used to operating in a just in time fashion these days. There would inevitably be customers that would wait for the packaging materials to arrive before they even started using them to prepare their shipments. This would end up creating a delay that would affect every single person on the route, which would be simply unacceptable to the courier company.
The other reason that courier companies don't provide packing supplies is because this would mean that they have to carry those supplies in their vehicles. The days where a courier company makes the most money is when its vehicles are the fullest. By taking up space in those vehicles with packing supplies, the courier company would essentially be limiting their ability to maximize a day's profits.
There are some few things which might be provided by very specific courier companies. For instance, there are courier companies out there that provide shipping labels to their customers. These might be in the form of an actual label, or might simply be a file that you print off from your computer. This is generally done to make it easier for the courier company to organize and track shipments.
The one time this isn't a hard and fast rule is when the occasional courier company decides to sell packing materials. Some companies might find that this is a lucrative side business if enough of their customers are requesting materials. These are usually going to be sold out of an office location, but will sometimes be shipped out. However, you should only order materials for upcoming shipments. A courier driver will not wait around if you haven't packaged the shipment for that day because you were waiting on materials to be brought to you by the driver.