Dumpster Diving for Free Cardboard Boxes vs. Buying Them New:
Put it this way, buying your boxes new sounds like a much better idea doesn't it? It's one thing to opt for free moving boxes (still not a good idea) but to trust something your shipping, usually something valuable to some extent, it's never a good idea, whether it's going to your cousin in Chicago or off to a customer (hopefully you'd never do this - yikes!) that purchased from you whether it's on Ebay, Amazon or your company website. Instead of trusting anything that's important to you or the recipient to a previously used box, you should always opt for new corrugated cardboard shipping boxes. Need more reasons? Here they are:
-Any used boxes you find by dumpster diving or begging at your local grocery/hardware/liquor store or local restaurant are sure to have been through the ringer or they wouldn't be given away for free. More than likely, they'll also smell weird, maybe even like rotten produce, or have been stained by leaky chemicals, alcohol or smell like (and be stained by) your favorite Teriyaki dish gone bad.
-What about bugs? Nasty but true. So called "free" cardboard boxes have a high potential of having been home (or may still be home) to roaches and bedbugs and who know what else. Regardless, you don't want to bring any of these creepy critters into your home or send them off to friends, family or your customers.
-You have to settle for what you can find and more than likely they won't be in the appropriate size and won't be as sturdy as new, corrugated boxes would be; worse you'll spend hours trying to make the wrong boxes work.
*Additional Note: With the new FedEx Ground, and most likely UPS Ground will also follow, new dimensional weight rules on every package now, this will cost you additional $$$ in shipping fees. Example, a 2lb product in a 8"x8"x8" box will be charged at the 3lb dimensional rate due to size. A 2lb package in a 12"x12"x12" box will be charged at the dimensional 11lb rate. that same 2 lb item, if it fits in a 6"x6"x6" box will ship at the ACTUAL 2 lb rate. So using the CORRECT SIZE CORRUGATED CARDBOARD SHIPPING BOX, WILL make a huge difference starting January 1st 2015 )
-Let's face it; time is money, so how much time are you willing to put in to find boxes that are good enough to use? I don't know about you, but I remember hunting around for boxes in my 20's when I was heading off to college and it always seemed that they had already been crushed and were unavailable, or I'd end up driving up the alleys behind the local retail stores, hoping it hadn't rained the night before; never again! And how about the money you spend on gas, traipsing around town, gathering up boxes on what feels like an insane scavenger hunt? What is your time worth?
-You probably know better than to send an important package in a "free" box to your most important client, but you also want to treat every client special because you don't want to lose repeat business. Use your time wisely and make more sales; in other words skip searching for used boxes; you don't want your company’s image, regardless of how big it is, to be portrayed as “cheap”.
Could your time be used wiser, maybe making more sales by opting for new boxes verses searching for beat up free ones that would only save you a few dollars? I think not. So, let Fastpack handling your corrugated cardboard shipping box needs, guaranteeing no bugs, holes, tears and most important of all, no worries at all.