A container at sea is not a warehouse that happens to move. It rolls, it heats, and it sweats. Most cargo damage traces back to one of those three, and all three are cheaper to prevent than to claim.
Pack for movement, not for storage
A vessel rolls continuously for weeks. Boxes that sit safely on a warehouse rack will shift, tip, and grind against each other in that motion. Pack so that nothing can move: fill voids, distribute weight evenly across the container floor, and keep heavy items low.
- Use double-wall cartons for anything stacked more than two high
- Fill empty space so cartons cannot slide into each other
- Place heavy goods at the bottom and against the container walls
- Strap and brace pallets so they stay put when the floor tilts
Plan for condensation
Containers cross climate zones. Warm humid air trapped at loading condenses on the steel ceiling when the vessel reaches cooler water, then rains back down on your cargo. Shippers call it container rain, and it ruins paper packaging, corrodes metal, and stains textiles.
Desiccant bags handle the moisture. Kraft liners keep cartons off bare steel. Neither is expensive, and both are far cheaper than a rejected shipment.
Cargo damage is rarely dramatic. It is usually a slow two-week process that nobody witnesses until the container doors open.
Label so the next person knows
Your cargo passes through hands that never see your packing list. Handling marks, orientation arrows, and stacking limits printed on the outside are the only instructions those hands get. Print them large, on at least two sides, in a language used at the destination port.
Photograph the load before the doors close. If a claim follows, that photograph is the difference between a settled claim and a disputed one.
Written by Operations Desk
