Bulky consignments: what they are and how to prepare a parcel

Choosing the right box for your bulky shipments

When running an e-commerce business or dealing with shipping in general, you need to understand how best to package, pack and ship a wide variety of products.

This can range from valuable items to very large and heavy or even fragile and perishable items. It is not always easy to disentangle yourself from the vast, and often difficult, world of shipping. The purpose of this article is to help you when you find yourself dealing with bulky products and bulky parcels.

The main aspect to assess is, without doubt, the choice of materials with which to package and pack the products. You have to make sure, for example, that the box you choose is strong enough to support the weight, the packaging is the right kind to protect the items from any shocks in moving and the tape is strong enough to keep the box closed. Of course, these are all parameters to be considered in any type of shipment, but in the case of large packages it is essential to take into account that the additional weight of the goods has an impact on the type of packaging used, the means of keeping the package closed and how to reinforce the goods inside the box to prevent shifting.

When choosing the box, it must be considered that the more the product increases in weight and size, the more resistant the box must be. We recommend a box with two-wave o two-wave reinforced available in different sizes up to 118x78x60cm. For particularly heavy and fragile loads you can opt for the triple wave cardboard container boxes which support loads of up to 500kg. On rajapack.co.uk you can also find many other boxes and crates for bulky shipments to choose from, such as the container box with flap. The boxes are available in both wood and cardboard.

When we talk about bulky shipments we do not only mean large and heavy products such as a boiler, mechanical parts and masonry products but also many small products inside a single large box. The latter case can occur when a wholesaler ships bulk material to several outlets.

As already mentioned, even the sealing of the package in these cases should not be underestimated, we recommend that you choose a suitable tape to ensure maximum security of your shipments such as reinforced adhesive tape with bi-directional weft or tape made of reinforced gummed paper tapean environmentally friendly tape to be used in conjunction with the wetting machine.

For additional security, secure the box with a strapping. There are a wide range of straps available in different materials, not sure which one to choose? Find out which one is right for you in our guide: Packing straps, how to choose?

How to pack your bulky items for shipping

While it is true that outer packaging is essential in preparing a shipment, it is equally true that inner packaging ensures the protection of items during transport and is therefore equally important. We are not only talking about the protection of a single item, think of a large mirror for example, but also about the need to keep different and heavy materials separate within the same box. The risk of these bumping into each other and damaging each other during transport is very high. This is where protective packaging comes into play, designed specifically so that unpleasant incidents do not occur.

In the category Protective Packaging and Filling you can choose from a wide range of products to protect packages during shipping and ensure the integrity of the goods. Remember to fill all empties carefully!

If volumes permit, we recommend the following for protection Padpak Guardian paper filling system. Ergonomic, functional and efficient, this system produces more than 1.2 metres of paper cushions per second.

Choosing a courier for bulky parcel shipments and other considerations

Last important considerations are the delivery of the parcel to the courier.

Once the goods have been properly packed, boxed and sealed, it will be necessary to ensure that the box (or several boxes together on the pallet) remains well assembled.

How? By wrapping everything with stretch film!

Then there are some bulky products that do not need boxes to be shipped such as tables, furniture, machinery and mattresses. In this case you can put the product directly on a palletwrap it with protective packaging such as bubble wrap or the bubble mat produced by the NEW AIR bubble-filling system and then as a final step secure everything with the stretch film. If you want to make your shipment more sustainable, try the innovative manual stretch film 80% recycled RAJA.

To handle pallets you will need an essential ally the: pallet truck. Make sure it is of high quality, manufactured with first-rate materials and designed to guarantee worker safety.

At this point, all you have to do is choose the most suitable courier for the type of shipment you are dealing with, always taking into account the services offered by each carrier and reckoning with the fact that the weight and size of the box affect the cost. How to start? By calculating the volumetric weight, find out how in our guide: Volumetric weight what is it and how is it calculated?.