shipping
Hand holding stopwatch

By Brooke Chaplan

When business managers implement strategic shipping procedures that have the ability to speed up processing times, your sales increase dramatically. Fast and reliable shipping is important in the business world because consumers always shop at stores that have the most convenient and beneficial processing options. If you’re having problems getting various products to customers in a timely manner, you can improve how the shipping department operates by following a few steps.

Avoid Systemic Delays

All businesses have systems in place that help employees get every product to customers in an efficient manner. The problem is, most managers overlook productivity once the employees are able to perform key tasks without thinking. Important management tasks should never be ignored because some areas of a shipping system won’t function proper if the conditions change. In order to pinpoint specific shipping problems, you must examine your systems thoroughly. If you resolve different problems that can lead to holdups, every package will reach each customer on time.

Enhance Communication

The shipping staff must communicate with everyone so all incoming and outgoing parcels can get to consumers without any delays. Managers have an important role as well, if your employees who handle incoming shipments don’t get updates after new stock is ordered, some customers may not receive their items on the scheduled arrival date. To avoid costly communication issues, you must have a clear policy that addresses how the office staff and warehouse employees should share vital and time-sensitive shipping information.

Implement Great Management Procedures

You can’t prevent all delays since major storms can affect communications and traffic. However, you can use sophisticated software to manage your shipments more efficiently. To prevent major delays, always take action shortly after a shipping problem is reported. By working with a company that specializes in shipping, you’ll resolve inefficiencies quicker. If you can, you might also consider starting up your own trucking business. This can help give you more control over shipping schedules. Places like Factor Loads will even help complete all the paperwork for you so your shipping or trucking systems aren’t a burden on your time.

Key Considerations

If your employees can’t locate and pick certain items in the warehouse quickly, processing and shipping times will suffer. To improve operations throughout a warehouse, always place multiple SKUs in a proper location. When SKUs are mixed and unorganized, operators lose time after each transaction.
Travel time is vital in a warehouse environment. If operators constantly move to different areas in order to pick certain items, processing delays will occur. This is why you’ll benefit from buying and installing conveyor systems.

Besides these methods, there are many other ways to give your customers faster services. However, if you want to save money on shipping, consider working with a company that launches new trucking businesses.

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most her time hiking, biking and gardening. For more information contact Brooke via Twitter @BrookeChaplan.