Impressions - October 2018 - 27

Ideally, production is finished one business
day ahead of this date. By meeting this goal,
your crew won't be waiting for production
to finish on the day the job has to ship. It'll
be waiting for pickup and the anxiety level
greatly will be diminished.
But this means the ship date has to be
real, not padded. You have to trust that your
departments can manage the process and do
things on time. When you pad dates in the
system, the information isn't accurate and
nobody can make a good decision based on
it. That ship date is used by every department
so they can handle tasks in a timely manner
to ensure the order is ready when needed.
Accountability for tasks starts with this bit
of information.
So let's pretend the order has to ship on the
15th of the month. The in-hands date is the
actual day the customer expects the order to
arrive. Whether this is shipped via a freight
carrier or courier, this is the expectation.
The difference between the ship and inhands dates is the freight lane you choose.
Let's say the in-hands date for the order is
the 18th of the month. Considering the ship
date, that means there are three days of freight
travel time built in.
If the destination address is a one-day
ground freight lane, that's no problem. But
if the address is four days away, something
has to give. The reason these dates need to
be real is so your shipping clerk can make a
good decision on what to do.

black marker so they can't be read. I've seen boxes get returned if this isn't done.
For shipping larger orders on skids with a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier, secure the
boxes to the skid with shrink wrap. You can source a heavier wrap with more stretch, which
will allow you to only use one layer instead of mummifying the skid with several. This means
you will use less shrink wrap and have fewer dizzy workers.

THE SHIPPING EXPERIENCE
Let's face it: Free freight sells. But we all know it isn't free; it's simply baked into the price.
You can guess shipping charges by running some numbers and breaking them down to a
per-shirt price, and establishing a worst-case scenario of shipping from your shop to the
other side of the country.
Let's say that averages about 25 cents per shirt for volume orders. Smaller orders may
cost a bit more. Add this amount to the price when quoting so the customer only receives
one number.
Many shops use the free-freight carrot to get customers to buy more product. For example,
"Here's your price, but at 144 shirts we throw in free freight."

PACKAGING
The container you use also matters, especially
since freight carriers charge for "dimensional
weight." Use the correct packaging for your
order shipment and find out if you are being
charged based on the item's actual weight or
the container's volume.
The latter will be determined by the box's
length, width and height. You can save money
by choosing the right method and packaging
your order to prevent dead space in the box.
Many shops print their own boxes or use
custom labels. You can purchase white or tan
boxes inexpensively from many wholesalers.
If you can print a shirt, you can print a box;
just use water-based, air-dry ink. For Tyvek
bags, print custom labels that you can stick
on a blank white or gray bag.
If you are reusing the boxes in which the
inventory arrived at your shop, remember to
either cover the existing barcodes with a blank
label sticker or strike through them with a

Options for shipping include
printing your own boxes or using
the boxes in which the blank
inventory arrived.
OCT./NOV. 2018

P.27

Impressions - October 2018

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