Bad weather conditions cause a significant part of freight shipping disruptions. No matter what part of the country you ship to, unpredictable weather can affect your supply chain and result in prolonged delays. Even though you have no control over external factors, you can do your best to reduce negative consequences for your business.
How weather affects freight shipping
Harsh weather is one of the biggest threats to shipping safety, influencing all supply chain members. Meteorological shifts frequently reduce road visibility, which considerably slows down delivery operations. It typically leads to heavy traffic and extended downtime of the vehicle units.
With poor road visibility, carriers can less supervise the freight state. As a result, your cargo becomes more susceptible to transportation and more prone to damage. Sometimes, it’s too hard to trace lost packages or verify the original box quantity on the road.
Intense weather conditions often become a reason for power outages. It significantly complicates the shipment supervision as sometimes you cannot track the delivery or get in touch with the driver. Therefore, the customers don’t receive notifications on the items’ arrival, nor can they get proper customer support assistance.
Bad weather undoubtedly causes limited carrier capacity. Without access to the available carriers’ network, it’s tough to book a spot shipment or find the required truck for later deliveries. If you still manage to retrieve it, expect increased pricing for shipping services.
Besides, weather shifts can make certain shipping services unachievable. Options like expedited shipping mean delivering customer orders faster than standard shipping time. However, intense snowfalls or storms can become dealbreakers for accelerated transit operations.
How to ship in bad weather conditions?
Moving freight in poor weather conditions is a challenging task that can ruin the entire supply chain. Though excluding the weather effects isn’t realistic, you can effectively decrease the damage and prevent significant financial losses.
Plan ahead
Unfortunately, exact predicting weather fluctuations is hardly possible. However, you can still follow multichannel updates to see if there’s any danger to your planned shipments. It best applies to particular times of a season when the possibility of extreme heat or heavy storms increases.
Consider weather forecasts when organizing a transit and agree on a delivery time counting potential shipping delays. Thus, you’ll be able to notify the buyers about the arrival time shifts and avoid customer dissatisfaction.
Think of the best ways of tracking your shipments under challenging circumstances and how you can share this information with the customers. Modern logistics software offers many options for offline tracking so that no one loses sight of a shipment.
Consider freight insurance
Freight insurance is an effective tool for protecting your finances due to the things you can’t control. If your cargo was damaged or lost during shipment, you can rely on the insurance policy and file a freight claim to get a refund. Professional insurance providers won’t make you wait long for the reimbursement so that you stick to the logistics budget even in complicated situations.
Rescheduling risky shipments is always preferable, but the logistics industry rarely provides this choice. Shippers have to deliver their products overlooking the weather to satisfy the increasing demand, and even minor delays can seriously harm the profits. Therefore, you’ll feel more confident about your shipping operations having freight insurance.
Package your freight properly
Knowing your cargo can face harder shipping effects, it’s vital to consider more substantial packaging. Even though your freight may be highly stackable, it’s not enough for moving in bad weather conditions.
Evaluate the double-boxing method or condensing goods into firmer crates. It will soften the transportation shock and reduce water damage. Use solid and water-resistant packing tape to seal your boxes. It will prevent separate items from falling out and eliminate the risk of freight loss.
We highly recommend palletizing your crates for better fixation inside the truck. Wooden or plastic shipping pallets can keep your freight’s integrity even during challenging transportation. Besides, you can reuse pallets repeatedly in your following shipments.
In addition, consider using waterproof material for your shipping labels. During lousy weather shipping, it’s crucial to facilitate cargo verification. Clear tags with waterproof tapes help carriers avoid multiple unpacking and prolonged checkups.
Find alternate shipping routes
In some cases, you can resolve the issue of extended delays by detecting alternate shipping routes. While your traditional transit ways may be overloaded with trucks, you can take the other road and avoid traffic jams. The other times, if bad weather has seriously damaged the route, it’s necessary to pick the safe one to prevent accidents and cargo destruction.
You can search for alternate shipping routes manually or using route optimization tools. This logistics software can help you determine the best direction or quickly change the course during shipment.
Work with reliable shipping providers
Cooperating with professional shipping services like GoShip can save you from many challenges of poor weather transportation. We can connect you to the vast network of carriers, so you always have guaranteed moving capacity. Our experts can advise you on the specifics of harsh weather delivery to avoid supply chain disruptions.
Above all, our easy-to-use digital platform allows you to schedule and control your shipments in a few clicks. At GoShip, you can manage and track your deliveries from any device. Get a free quote and start shipping today!