Shipping processes can make or break a business, no matter the size. Keeping your shipping systems on track as you grow will reward you with a loyal customer base and the best kind of business – repeat business. Conversely, too many errors in your shipping will destroy the customer experience and leave lasting negative effects.

In this post, we cover the key points of successful shipping processes, highlight where shipping errors tend to occur and examine areas you might improve.

Common Shipping Errors to Be Aware Of

Every business strives for trouble-free shipping processes, but common errors do occur. Knowing exactly what the specific problems are and keeping them in mind will help curb their potential damage before they become a significant issue:

• Items Don’t Arrive on Time – Delivering on time according to customer expectations is a must in and business. If you don’t, customers and clients will be happy to seek alternatives and do business elsewhere. Best practices are to state order processing and shipping times when you take an order. It’s also a good idea to provide your customers with source of information should they experience a problem that is beyond your control.
  

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• Wrong Items Sent – Though less of an issue these days due to improved shipment tracking, it does happen in every business and is almost always the result of human error. For instance, two items may be very similar leading to the wrong item being picked. The item could also be in the wrong warehouse location. Either way, it’s an error that will cost you as you need to retrieve the incorrect item and send out a replacement.
  

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• Wrong Quantity Sent – This tends to happen more frequently with businesses that sell bundles or packs of products. Multi-pack items often cause issues like this, especially if they need to be broken down before being sent out. large bundles of multiple single products can also cause problems. Though send the wrong quantity may not have as severe an affect as sending the wrong item entirely, you’ll still have to deal with the indirect cost of having to manage and adjust your stock levels for accuracy.
  

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• Stock Levels are Incorrect – As mentioned, inaccurate stock levels will produce their own headaches. Mismanaged inventory levels can cause problems with missed or late deliveries. Product returns are one of the leading causes of stocking problems and can lead you selling items you don’t have. If you have multiple warehouse locations, keeping your stock levels accurate and up to date will help to keep related problems to a minimum.
  

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• Items Sent to the Wrong Address – It’s common for online stores to ask there are separate delivery and billing addresses before an order is processed. For most individuals, these are the same. Shipping errors can also occur if the item is a gift going to a completely different address. For large shipments, a Bill of Lading (BOL) is supposed to have all addressing information clearly represented to ensure accurate delivery. Again however, errors do occur therefor it’s a very good idea to whenever possible, double check shipping information is in fact correct beforehand.

How to Prevent Shipping Errors

It’s a fact, shipping errors will occur in every business. The key to preventing shipping errors, and keep your customers happy in the process, is to have a strategy in place that both reduces and mitigates the problems from starting in the first place. Here are 10 tips for taking control over shipping errors.

1. Partner with Reliable Shipping Services

Even with the perfect in-house shipping system, some shipping errors can be out of your control. Don’t settle for a delivery service or 3pl provider that will simply “get the job done”. Shop around to ensure you’re getting the best price and service for both you and your customers.

2. Implement an Automated Warehouse System

Several technologies will allow you to automate your warehouse. These include RFID tagging, robotics, cloud computing and on-demand warehousing. Each of these, or useful combination will improve the accuracy of your inventory flow, increase overall efficiency and in some cases, even help to reduce your carbon footprint.

Warehouse Management System

3. Leverage an End-to-End Shipment Tracking Service

Occasionally, deliveries will wind up in never-never land – never to be seen again. Although you might be able to claim on insurance for these missing items, this doesn’t help the customer and adds to your inventory shrinkage. If at all possible possible, employ an end-to-end tracking service to improve product delivery accountability. By sharing the tracking details with your customer, they can see where their order is at all times and make sure they’re available to receive it.

4. Conduct Regular Product and Inventory Location Checks

With picking and stock management, inventory that’s spread across multiple warehouse locations can be the source of significant issues. By choosing warehouses that are strategically located and conducting quarterly reviews, the more accurate stock levels that result can help reduce errors and speed up pick times.

5. Double-Check Order Information

When it comes to shipping errors, inaccurate order information is the seed of all bad things. If you take orders over the phone, the best practice is to repeat back the order details to the customer to verify their accuracy. With online orders, it’s best to use an address validation service to check that the address does indeed exist and has been completed correctly. This will save you sending shipments to a non-existent or incorrect address.

6. Offer Focused Shipping Options

Offering too many shipping methods also increases the likelihood of errors through sheer numbers. In a similar way, they’ll severely complicate matters when you have to account for express and international shipping. As a general rule, avoid using more than three or four shipping methods.

7. Be Smart About Your Packaging

Compared to having to make good on a delivery due to poor packaging, the relatively small cost of a sturdier box or bubble wrap filler is well worth the extra few cents invested. Without robust packaging, not only do you run the risk of having to re-ship the item, you can’t sell a broken product at it’s full margin. If you want to reduce returns, choose to use the most appropriate packing that helps it arrive undamaged.

8. Create a Double-Check Picking System

For full accuracy, you should realize a double-check system at some point in your pick, pack and ship process. You can employ the same person to do it in picking, or engage someone further down the line in packing. Either way, the extra effort will prevent the majority of picking errors.

9. Use a Barcode Scanner

A surefire way to boost your picking accuracy, barcode scanners tell your pick team if they’re picking the right product and in the right quantities. Many scanners also have the capability to update your inventory in real time after a product has been picked thus helping with inventory management accuracy too.

10. Apply a Thorough Returns Process

Returns are a natural part of any product-based businesses. Without a reasonable process of handling them quickly and efficiently, you’re setting yourself up for major headaches. A good returns process will account for stock levels, human resources and have a buffer to account for things like associated packaging. The aim is to get products back into stock, or at least accounted for, and the right product shipped as soon as possible.

Think of Errors as Opportunities

Building and maintaining an accurate shipping process is vital for any business. Time should be spent planning and monitoring each stage for improvements that can be made. Errors may and probably will still occur, but learning from them as to why and when they happen goes a long way towards improving your systems.

Residential vs Commercial Delivery: The Obvious Basics

• Residential delivery: final delivery to a home or private residence, including a home based business.
• Commercial delivery: final delivery to a business.

Why does it generally cost less to ship to a commercial address?

Logistically speaking, it’s simply less expensive to deliver to densely clustered commercial addresses. Conversely, areas zoned as residential are often scattered throughout sprawling neighborhoods.

Why is residential delivery more than commercial delivery?

If you monitor your shipping destination addresses, you may have noticed that residential shipping fees are higher than commercial rates. Because residential addresses are spread out, they have more overhead costs such as time, fuel costs, and wear and tear on vehicles.

“Last-mile delivery” is the most expensive part of any small parcel or package cost. Commercial addresses, being mostly situated in high-density areas, allow carriers to bundle or group many deliveries in a small geographic area.

Hence, commercial delivery is less expensive than residential delivery.

What about residential freight costs?

In terms of LTL shipping, business to business (B2B) shipments are the norm. Carriers usually ship dock to dock, or dock to tailgate and vice versa.

For reasons explained above, carriers will consider anything shipping to or from a location not located in commercial area as an extra service. This will require additional equipment or have certain restrictions.

Common questions about commercial and residential deliveries

As someone who needs their products shipped, you may have certain circumstantial details. Here are some common questions most frequently asked:

Why am I being charged a residential fee if I have a business with a dock?

Some carriers will justify additional residential fees based on the fact that residential streets are narrower and more difficult to maneuver. 

With decreased maneuverability, access issues arise such as the need to send a smaller truck, or a truck with tailgates. There are greater time requirements plus drivers have to pay more attention to road restrictions and increased pedestrian traffic.

It’s also common for cities to impose restrictions on the vehicle weight allowed to pass through some areas.

The rules can vary from carrier to carrier, some may be a bit more lenient than others. For instance, some carriers may not charge for residential services if they’re picking up from a business with a dock in a residential area.

Others however will only charge if there are additional services required such as sending a smaller vehicle or a truck with a tailgate. Furthermore, most carriers will tend to charge based on zoning designations set by the city.

Ultimately, the carrier has the final word on the shipping details and these charges are rarely disputed.

Timing and communication are ket to keeping delivery costs under control. If through miscommunication, the carrier sends a truck that is too large for your area, they will charge a re-delivery fee for a failed delivery attempt. These costs need to cover the driver’s time and fuel surcharges.

My street can accommodate a 53’ truck and has no heavy traffic or restrictions. Can we do something about these charges?

It’s a good question with no straightforward answer.

As mentioned above, the carrier has the final say on how it handles a residential location. Sometimes with borderline cases it’s best to check with your preferred carrier about specific details.

What’s the worst that could happen if I forget to include residential service for a quote?

It comes down to timing. If you’ve booked a shipment without requesting a residential service, and the shipment has not yet been picked up, you can try to contact the carrier to see if the paperwork and pricing can be revised. As long as the new paperwork is used at delivery or pickup, the carrier should have all relevant information to avoid overlapping issues.

Equally important, if the carrier thinks they’re delivering to a business with a dock instead of a residence, this could lead to issues such as missed delivery or pickup. In such instances, the carrier may dispatch a truck that’s too large for the delivery location. The end result is delays, extra charges, and needless headaches.

For the most part, carriers realize residential charges are an inconvenience to you, the shippers. Therefor most carriers will schedule an appointment for delivery to make sure the process flows with as fem delays or hiccups as possible.

Partner With Someone Who Knows Your Destination Locations

Due to access restrictions and higher time constraints, it’s normal for carriers to apply additional charges to shipments involving residences, or businesses in residential areas. In order to make the delivery go as smoothly as possible, better carriers will schedule an appointment with the consignee to ensure location accuracy.

In an era where business and logistics have become global, satellite tracking has become a conventional means of pinpointing a person or object’s location anywhere in the world.

This tool for monitoring has changed logistics tremendously since its inception back in the 50s. Satellite tracking technology uses the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The GPS measures the distance between your location and the satellites that orbit the earth.

How Does Satellite Tracking Work?

The GPS is a worldwide radio-navigation device that is formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their stations on the ground. The system works to find out exactly where an object is located.

The tracking system may be connected to items for this use, such as a vehicle or cell phone. The satellites will work to distinguish where it is located at all times. The device has a function of tracking the movement of the object across a geographical region. This form of satellite tracking has proved useful and changed logistics in several ways.

Real-time Satellite Vehicle Tracking

Satellite tracking has improved logistics by ensuring real-time monitoring of vehicles. Some of the tracking firms, such as Linxup have tracking equipment for vehicles that enable you to locate your car easily and quickly.

You can do so while it’s in motion or on-site. Here is how this happens:

1. Vehicle satellite tracking systems offer updates once a minute when they are moving and each hour when turned off.
2. Equipment, on the other hand, offers updates once each day when on battery and at an interval of 10 minutes when powered and in motion.
3. A Google Maps interface that is intuitive distinguishes which objects are vehicles and which are equipment when at work.
4. The system also offers updates on the fleet movement as it would with normal traffic conditions.
5. Finally, the system gives you access to a bird’s eye view of every vehicle you have on the road and their logistics details.

Conventional satellite tracking systems have these functionalities and even more depending on their in-built conditions which influence logistics. This real-time GPS tracking allows you, at a glance, to identify:

1. The direction as well as the speed the vehicle is traveling
2. The interval between the GPS reports
3. The current address of the equipment or car on the move
4. The driver nearest to the location

What is the Difference Between GPS and Satellite Tracking?

In GPS Tracking, a GPS device receives and later transfers signals that it receives from the satellites around the region. With satellite tracking, the satellite tracker makes use of the signals that emanate from a GPS device.

The satellite software then uses these signals and combines them with a complete map to get the exact coordinates of an object.

GPS tracking systems have a variety of components that use the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network.

The network includes a variety of satellite trackers that send microwave signals back to the GPS device and give real-time locations, speed of the vehicle, and direction as well as the time that this data was captured.

Validating the Satellite Tracking Argument

Ultimately, GPS tracking through various satellites can provide both real-time and historical data to improve inventory management and delivery. These innovations in satellite tracking have enormously influenced logistics.