Despatch of Goods: Packing and Marking

Nothing is more infuriating to a buyer than to find his goods damaged or partly lost on arrival. The buyer has a right to expect his goods to reach him in a perfect condition and the seller has to organize the despatch of goods in such a way that the problems which might occur during the transit should be as less serious as possible. The important assets¹ of export distribution are packing and marking.

Packing is intended to protect goods from all types of different hazards. Cargo in transit² may be threatened by natural phenomena or by man-made problems which include pilferage. The damage to a consignment of goods may also be caused by its proximity to another shipment. So the general aim in all packing is not only to make the goods secure during the journey, but at the same time to make the package as small and light as possible. Transport costs on land usually depend on the weight but on the sea the size of the package is also significant.

To handle the problems that face export despatches, in many large export firms special departments for export packing have been established and the whole problem is under regular control. They also may employ a forwarding agent³ to do packing for them.

The marking of goods is very important because an unmarked consignment⁴ may be mislaid at some stage. Even worse, the unmarked goods become practically untraceable⁵. At the same time, marking should not reveal any excess information about the contents of the goods in order to avoid the risk of theft.

For correspondence, the following specialized terms of packing containers are useful to know:

There are three principle types of marking, which are usually done by paint or ink through a metal stencil⁶ on export packages:

(a) The consignee’s own distinctive marks, which are registered and play the role of identification. These marks, including the name of place of destination, serve as the address on an envelope.

(b) Any official mark required by authorities of the country of export or import. Some countries require the name of the country of origin of the goods to be marked on each package, others - weights and dimensions⁷ or both.

(c) Special directions or warnings. Here you will find some special instructions regarding manner of handling, loading, lifting and various warnings both for the owner’s and the carrier’s benifit⁸.

Below are the most widespread examples:

Warnings and directions may be also represented by stencilling symbols that are understood by speakers of any language. For example: