Cargo Damage: Things that you need to know

Shipping is a crucial part of any supply chain, be it on road, rail, sea, or air. Ensuring the protected delivery of the product to customers is essential. As shipments move miles from their origin, frequently from a remote place’s factory to their final destination, they are uncovered to a variety of environmental factors. Ensuring that the product arrives without damage is essential to satisfy a customer. Supply chain enterprise professionals do not be aware of or recognize the sorts of cargo damage, how and why it happens.

Types of cargo damages

Every year, thousands of complaints related to cargo damage claims are registered. Here are some type of cargo damages are introduced for you.

1. Physical Damage: Physical damage occurs when cargo is damaged due to dropping, being knocked throughout transit, etc. The major purpose of physical damage is due to bad packing inside the container causing damages. Bad storage consists of incorrect, improper, and inadequate lashing, wrong weight distribution, flawed loading affecting the stability of the cargo.
2. Wet Damage: As the name suggests the damage is caused due to water and wet conditions. The damage may occur due to changes in climate such as moisture, condensation all through transit, or seawater ingressing into the container due to small holes.
3. Contamination Damage: As the word indicate the dame is due to the contamination. Damage to cargo when it has been made impure through pollution, poisoning, and many others.
4. Reefer Damages: The damages are common occurrences and are brought about by way of reefer equipment or mishandling or strength failure. Reefer cargo damage consists of decay, thawing, freeze damage, over-ripening, bruising, off-size, and/or discoloration of merchandise in transit. The damage can appear due to fallacious putting of temperature, unintended human error, unsuitable stowage, bad air circulation.
5. Infestation Damage: Infestation damage is caused f a large number of insects or animals, especially rodents in a cargo. Such type of damage mainly occurs in cargo-carrying agricultural products. Infestation damage can also lead to contamination damage making products unsuitable to be used by the customer

Preventing Measures:

As a forwarder, shipper, manufacturer, or importer, it is critical that you take some exact steps to limit the risk of damaged cargo and save economic and operational losses. A few preventing measures are mentioned below:

1. Use the right kind of container for shipping respective products. E.g. heavy cargo wants a container designed to lift heavy items.
2. Ensure that the right lashings and dunnage material are used inside the container to prevent the movement of cargo
3. Ensure that the incompatible products are not blended in the container e.g., mixing clothing with chemicals.
4. When transport cargo prone to wet damage, make sure the right route is chosen. Climates with high humidity could affect the cargo, and condensation should create water damage. Before shipment, make certain all doorways of the container are nicely sealed and that all rubber gaskets
5. Frozen cargoes are checked for dehydration, desiccation, fluid migration, odors, black spot, coloration, and flavor changes, and need to additionally be examined for signs and symptoms of any upward temperature deviation and subsequent re-freezing.

Conclusion: Points which are mentioned above are the causes and prevention method for cargo damages. While you attempt to take proper care of the shipments in long transit, some situations are out of human control, and accidents can take place in freight forwarding industries at any time, leading to damaged cargo.