Delays in the delivery of goods or services can negatively impact your business in a variety of ways. They affect not only the interest of customers in your brand or services, but also negatively impact sales and profits because customers are less likely to purchase something from your company again. There are several solutions available to ensure that your shipments are made on time so that you don’t end up losing customers. You can also reduce late deliveries from happening by streamlining operation procedures and processes.
But what if the cause of the delay was not from your end?
Some local businesses still rely on postal services to receive and send parcels or packages. However, there are postal disruptions that can cause a delay for a few days or more. The impact of a postal service failure or delay can cause customers to re-evaluate a business. For this reason, if a company wants to increase and retain its customer base, it must ensure that it meets or exceeds customer expectations in terms of timeliness and quality of service.
How Businesses Can Maintain Or Continue Trade Despite Postal Disruptions
What shipping options can businesses utilize if there’s postal disruption?
Freight shipping is the common method of receiving a shipment of products from point A to point B through trucks, planes, or ships. It may involve one or more shipping methods and one or more carriers.
There are three freight shipping methods that you can utilize during postal disruptions, namely:
- Take Advantage of Air Freight
Air freight has many benefits for businesses, but it does have some drawbacks that make it less desirable for certain types of industries. Understanding air freight is easy with the help of a reliable freight forwarder that can explain in detail air freight and its benefits. Here are the other things that you should know about shipping by air:
- Air freight is a secure form of shipping, as cargo is delivered to its intended destination using strict security measures. This makes air cargo very safe for shipments of sensitive or classified materials.
- Air cargo can also help cut down on the risks of losing shipments in transit. Because of this, air cargo companies can offer better insurance coverage than land-based transport companies.
- Air freight allows you to track the shipment’s progress through the airline’s online system. This makes it easy to determine if a product has been received by the destination country.
- Utilize Land Freight for Bulk Goods
Land-based transport methods include rail and trucking. Land-based transportation options may not always be the most affordable, especially when it comes to transporting large cargo within long distances. In comparison to air and sea freight, you will find that shipping by land has its benefits and drawbacks:
- Land shipments are more likely used for lighter cargo that’s shipped locally. The other advantage of land freight is that it’s a cost-effective way of moving goods in bulk. This is especially important for smaller enterprises that may not want to invest in shipping and delivery equipment and would instead prefer to outsource these functions to fulfillment centers or specialist cargo transport companies.
- On the other hand, transporting merchandise over long distances by rail can be complicated. It can be hard to determine the loading and unloading points, which may increase the costs even further.
- Use Sea Freight for Large Volumes
Sea freight is an effective means of transporting large volumes of goods promptly using carrier vessels. Goods are usually packed into containers and later loaded onto a ship. Besides this, using sea transport for your business-related needs has a range of added benefits, such as:
- Being able to save a lot of money by choosing to import goods in bulk. You can even get a discount for your bulk imports since certain fees for particular items of import vary depending on the country from which they are imported.
- Shipping by sea may take longer compared to land or air shipments. To determine whether sea freight is your best option, contact a freight forwarding expert who will be able to give you a more accurate answer.
Takeaway
Any business owner who wants to grow their company should take the speed and reliability of their deliveries into consideration all the time. Meeting or exceeding customers’ expectations will help attract new customers and maintain existing ones, resulting in the growth of the company’s customer base and sales. A postal disruption can occur for any number of reasons and could happen at any time. It, therefore, becomes essential for a business to have proper plans in place to deal with any challenges that may occur so an alternative shipping method may be utilized.
