Maintaining an organized and efficient company can become expensive when you factor in equipment costs, payroll, supplies, maintenance expenses, inventory control and facility upkeep. Controlling operating costs and staying on a budget with increasing competition and rising shipping expenses can be tricky. But with a few simple adjustments to your shipping strategy, you can minimize transportation costs, streamline your daily operations and improve your business’s overall efficiency.

Shipping Strategy Tips

Rising shipping costs are a significant challenge, especially for small businesses. Poorly planned strategies or ineffective solutions can easily eat into your bottom line. When managing frequent merchandise shipping, managers or owners should keep three things in mind:

• Reducing the shipping costs per package
• Minimizing customer wait times
• Distributing goods to both new and existing warehouse facilities

These goals are often easier said than done. Some basic methods to help reduce your company’s overall shipping costs are:

• Find a quality transportation company and negotiate your contract, detailing all fees, services and utility times.
• Create a streamlined shipping network and optimize shipping solutions to find configurations that suit your specific business needs.
• Choose new and existing warehousing locations with optimal redistribution capabilities and eliminate those with extended wait times or costly storage expenses.

Evaluating your current shipping structure and transportation partners can help save on your business’s overall shipping expenses. You may also find creative ways to cut down on shipping costs by changing your shipping containers.

How Businesses Can Save on Shipping Costs Using Bulk Bags

When you’re looking for durable, effective and budget-friendly shipping solutions, consider bulk bags. Flexible bulk bag containers can store and transport a variety of different materials, including agriculture products, grains, food, pharmaceuticals, fertilizer and building materials. Bulk bags decrease shipping costs by:

• Reducing transportation expenses: Bulk bags are incredibly durable and can handle heavy-duty shipping environments. They don’t require bulky pallets or protective packaging that can add weight to your containers, costing more in transportation fares.
• Having large carrying capacities: Bulk bag containers — while lightweight and collapsible — are available in a wide range of styles and sizes with the ability to transport various products. Average bulk containers can store loads weighing between 1,000 and 5,000 pounds.
• Saving storage costs: Along with shipping costs, warehousing expenses can also be incredibly costly — as they are largely determined by the amount of square footage being occupied. Bulk bags are easily filled and stacked to maximize available space and reduce square footage occupied. When not in use, bulk backs simply collapse and can be stored compactly.
• Occupying less dead weight: The weight of your shipping container is known as the dead weight. Heavier containers with hefty dead weight will be more expensive to ship. Compared to alternative shipping container options, bulk bags are incredibly light and less expensive to ship.
• Using recyclable resources: Unlike alternative shipping container options that can be used a limited number of times, bulk bags manufactured from polypropylene can be used multiple times to help reduce your overall storage and shipping costs.

How Buying Reused or Recycled Bags Helps You Save on Shipping Costs

When you’re considering ways to reduce your shipping costs, buying reused or recycled bulk bags is an excellent option. Purchasing reused or recycled bags — or reusing your own, for that matter — helps you save on shipping costs by extending the life cycles of existing bags and reducing your expenditures on new products.

When you buy new bulk bags for use in your transportation and storage operations, you might use those bags once and then throw them away, potentially thinking that a used bag is an unsafe bag. Or if you buy other, more rigid shipping and storage containers, they may not stand up to repeated uses, and they tend to cost more and incur more in fees because of their extra weight.

However, some bulk bags offer excellent opportunities for reuse. If you buy refurbished bulk bags, you’ll pay much less than you would for brand-new products, and you’ll get bags of equal safety and quality. And if you can reuse old bags, you’ll reduce your shipping costs even more by splitting your initial costs over multiple uses.

Buying your reused or recycled bags in bulk helps you cut your expenditures even more. When you buy in bulk, you’ll see decreases in your unit costs when you increase the number of bags in your order. So placing a large order of recycled bulk bags can save you money. You’ll get the lowest prices per bag, gain more value for the cost and feel great about doing something good for the environment at the same time — reusing packaging and reducing your contribution to the 80 million tons of containers and packaging that go into landfills every year.

Trust Bulk Bag Reclamation for All Your Shipping Needs

When you need the most convenient and cost-effective solution to help reduce your company’s shipping bottom line, trust the unparalleled quality of the bulk bag inventory available at Bulk Bag Reclamation. With over 25 years of industry experience, our team understands the unique needs of different industries and can recommend quality, dependable bulk bag solutions to suit your specific needs.

Reach out to us today to learn more about our inventory of bulk bag products! Call us at 515-444-7243 to speak to a team member or complete our online form to request a quote.