Label All Cargo on a Pallet

One of the easiest mistakes to make when packing palletized cargo is forgetting to label every box. Yes, the whole thing should be secured together as one unit on a pallet, preferably shrink-wrapped with multiple layers. Even so, every box, package, or crate must still be labeled. Labeling the pallet itself is also a good move.

Labeling & Customs

If you can’t get old labels off, completely cross off those old labels. You don’t want confusion, especially when it comes to customs and international shipping. Customs will often compare documentation to the packages itself, and they’ll often look to see that each package or unit on a pallet adheres to what’s stated on documentation.

This isn’t unreasonable on their part. One of the oldest ways of sneaking things in through customs is to pack it with a range of other acceptable goods, and to simply hope customs won’t notice the one additional item.

First off, we will recognize it as your shipping company and without having a shipment match our bill of lading, we won’t ship it. We go the extra mile for many of our customers, but we also have to ensure that we don’t put ourselves at risk if someone tries to take advantage of the shipping process. Even if we were to overlook something (which we won’t), customs would spot it immediately.

Matching Documentation

To avoid this, make sure what you pack matches the documentation, and that every particular package or unit in palletized cargo is labeled clearly. We also recommend labeling two opposite sides of the pallet. By labeling the pallet this way, it can be read easily no matter how it’s packed with other pallets.

Include on these labels the booking number we give your shipment, and the contact information of the recipient. This serves as a redundancy to our own tracking, and primarily helps to make the shipment itself more transparent for customs to be able to process it quickly.