Packing And Shipping Small Orders

[WIwoodworker]

Just wondering if anyone out there ships small orders of wood and if you've found an efficient way of doing the packing? I sell a fair amount of figured wood and am getting more orders as time goes on. The issue I'm running into is the packaging part. I do OK but I figure there's got to be a more efficient way.

Currently, if the order is one or two boards I just wrap it in cradboard, use an insane amount of tape to seal the box and send it out.

If it's several boards or more I shrink wrap the ends together and maybe the center and then wrap the pile in cardboard and ship. The weight of the packages is always below 75 lbs (about 20bf)). If it's more wood than that I just make two or more packages. It also depends on the length of the wood but I think you get the idea. Small qtys for woodworkers.

Does anybody do it differently or do you have a way to do this efficiently? Thanks.

[ghulst]

I have received lumber that I bought over Ebay and it was packed the way you did..Must be the way to go.
   Gary

[Cedarman]

I have a bunch of left over boxes so I have a the cardboard.  I keep weight at 70# or less.  Just put carboard around the wood, tape as needed and ship.  Fedex has better pricing now than UPS.  We ship a package or two each week this way.  UPS lost my last package to New York City.  It was on the truck for delivery and never made it to my customers door.  What a PIA.  Customer not happy, I'm not happy, paperwork and 10 minutes on the phone.  All for 67 bucks worth of wood.  Had to rush to replace.  Another time they shipped the package to North Carolina instead of Columbus Ohio.  Got it tracked down.  UPS rewrote the label wrong and it went to north side of Columbus.  All the while the customer blaming us because we mislabled the package.  When he got it he removed the UPS label and found our correct label underneath.  He did apologize profusely.  But I understand his frustration.

Just be propared.  Double check shipping addresses and put clear tape over the address.  Keeps it from smearing if it gets wet.  Put address inside box too.

[OneWithWood]

Sent my first small order out last Friday.  Our packaging methods seem to be the same.  Used cardboard boxes cut to fit with a mile of tape. 
I got charged an $8 additional shipping fee even though I was within the stated parameters of WxLxH and the package weighed in around 25#.  Do you think it was the tape? 

[Dale Hatfield]

pending on who you use to process your order.will depend on how much extra you get charged.I use 2 diff places to ship UPS one on either end of town morning and evening pick up.On place allwasy dings me more than the other.