Nothing sinks your mood like a photo from a customer showing your pallet tilted like a tired tower. Damaged loads cost real money in credits and reships, and most of the time they’re avoidable.

Start by looking at the pallet itself. A cracked board or loose stringer won’t be saved by any amount of plastic. Check it before you stack anything.

Then build the load properly. Heavy items go low, layers overlap like bricks, and nothing should hang over the edge. A tidy stack needs less wrap and holds together better, which people tend to forget.

Now the wrap. Many shippers use stretch film, but for some products polyethylene shrink film packaging gives a tighter, more weather-resistant result. Heat pulls it snug around the whole load, so dust and rain have a harder time getting in during a long trip.

Whichever you use, wrap the base first so the load is tied to the pallet itself. Overlap each pass, and put a few extra turns near the top. Corners are where most failures start.

Bagged goods are their own special problem. Salt, feed and fertilizer bags slump and slide if they aren’t stacked with care. If that’s what you ship, ask your wholesale salt bags supplier about the surface of the film. Some bags grip each other well, and some are slick as a fish. That one detail can decide whether layers stay put over a few hundred miles.

Corner boards help on fragile edges, and a clearly marked top side keeps handlers from flipping things upside down. A line about stacking limits on the label doesn’t hurt either.

One more habit worth stealing: take a quick photo of every pallet before it leaves your dock. When a damage claim shows up, you’ll have proof of how it looked when it left, and that settles most arguments fast.

None of this is expensive. It just takes a few extra minutes at the end of the line.