South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, so there is little surprise that packages are regularly pilfered when shipped to and from the country. Amazon, one of the globe’s largest e-commerce sites, stalled their shipping service to South Africa through the South African Post Office because of the high rates of theft and fraud back in 2008.
The only way a person can safely ensure that their product or package is safely transported to and from South Africa is through express courier, a service that Amazon and many other internationally based e-commerce and online retail/shipping businesses offer. However, the cost of such a service is more expensive than regular shipping, and not by any small margin.
So how else can we ensure that our packages are safe for general shipping?
The easiest way to ensure safe shipping is to properly package your parcels using the finest quality packaging materials.
- A package that has been properly secured with packaging tape is less likely to be opened. Those looking to pilfer from packages will usually look for weaknesses in the package. A package that is not properly taped with packaging tape will have open flaps that are exposed. Make sure that packaging tapes cover all joints and gaps of the corrugated cardboard box.
- Ensure that you use high quality corrugated cardboard boxes for all packages that are to be shipped. A new cardboard box with double, corrugated support will dissuade theft because marks, abrasions and cuts will be easily noticed.
- Not only will plastic sheeting ensure that your product is provided an additional layer of protection, but it will also be an additional level of packaging that thieves are expected to open. Thieves have very little time to open the package and steal the items within, so plastic wrapping will just prolong the process, and will likely dissuade the thieves.
If you are looking for high quality packaging products to safely deliver your goods to their final destination, contact Design Packaging & Tapes today!
