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Order wooden shipping crates to get your items to their destination

Shipping crates come in different sizes and materials. Custom order them, buy standard crates assembled or purchase them unassembled. Factors influencing the type of crate you'll need include weight, size, shape and fragility of item(s) shipped and whether you intend to reuse the crate.

I recommend: For custom-made wooden crates, consider Freight and Crate. In business for more than 10 years, the company offers custom packaging and shipping options for domestic and international freight transportation. Contact a crating service like Clarke Packing and Crating Company that provides crating at its location or on site. The company offers complete design services and welcomes the opportunity to find solutions for tough crating challenges.

Use plastic or metal crates for storing or transporting smaller objects

Plastic crates work well for storing and transporting smaller items. In an office environment, you can use them for storing and transporting brochures, books, extra copy paper and other supplies. If you own a distribution company, carry your drink products in specially designed beverage crates. Benefit from produce crates if you own a market or produce stand. If you own a grooming service or veterinary clinic, take advantage of crates designed for pets.

I recommend: At Staples, you'll find the right crates to meet your office needs. For plastic beverage crates, go to Norseman Plastics. Check out the supply of soft and metal crates for pets at PetSmart.

Include crates in your office or warehouse decorating scheme

College students and young people on tight budgets have created makeshift tables, bookcases and other furniture and accessories for decades, and this secondary use of crates might even make perfect economical sense for your office, too -- even if it's only a temporary solution. Drape fabric over stacked milk crates or a shipping crate to make a coffee table or a small table for your own office coffee pot and supplies. If you get a shipping crate to use as a coffee table in your office, let it perform double duty as a storage container for archived files. If your desk doesn't include file drawers, look for a wood crate as a convenient substitute that offers quick access to the files you work with most often.

I recommend: Get true inspiration for plastic crate office design by checking out Crooked Brains; you probably never thought of creating a doorway or chandelier out of milk crates, but they could look impressive in the right environment. Order a trade show crate from Caseworks Crating and Packaging; between shows, keep your trade show equipment stored safely inside, cover it with fabric and order a custom-made cushion to fit on top for comfortable bench seating against a wall or under a window in your office.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When ordering wood crates for international shipping, only purchase wood shipping crates that have been heat treated or fumigated with methyl bromide and marked with the approved International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) logo. The treated crates prevent introduction of harmful insects into the U.S.

1. Closed, which is completely enclosed or almost completely enclosed with some gaps between the boards, allowing for expansion of the cargo inside the crate.
2. Open, which normally includes sheathing and has gaps wider than what is required for expansion.
3. Framed, which has only a supporting structure with no surface covering the crates.
   

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Buy closed shipping crates online

Closed crates provide the most secure protection for transportation. Wooden crates are usually constructed of 1/4 inch plywood and connected with bolts or hinges on all sides. A common size for a shipping crate is a cube 4 feet on a side with a capacity of 1 to 1.5 tons.

I recommend: Find a wide range of wood shipping crates and other shipping supplies at Uline. This crating service runs monthly specials that include catalog items, items sold only over the Internet and overstock items. As an alternative to wood shipping crates, check out plastic crates from Case Technology.

Get custom shipping crates made for hard-to-pack items

Some items cannot be securely packed in the usual cubical crate or have other unusual shipping requirements. You can find some companies that will build custom shipping crates for you.

I recommend: Look at a slideshow of wooden shipping crates that Ozark Custom Crates has made. All American Crafting specializes in packing difficult items in crates for long distance transportation.

Combine a crating service with shipping when moving goods overseas

A forwarding agent has experience in packing and transporting a large quantity of goods to other countries and can handle the documentation, insurance and customs requirements for you.

I recommend: Find the type of crating that a full service company such as Caseworks Crating and Shipping provides. Export Packaging is experienced in packaging large goods into wood crates that must be disassembled to achieved a smaller cube size for more economical shipping.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Changes in humidity, pressure and temperature must be considered when deciding among which wood crates to use. This is the primary reason that the International Air Transport Association specifically allows only closed crates on airplanes.

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Look for shipping crates made of wood or wood products

By far, you'll find most shipping crates constructed from wood or wood products, though you can get plastic crates for products like beverages or produce. Metal crates carry added weight and rarely provide the optimum shipping crate solution.

I recommend: Wooden crates used in international transportation must meet certain requirements for fumigation or heat treatment to prevent unwanted harmful insects from making their way into the U.S. Crates made of plywood, particle board or OSB may not fall under the same requirements since the glue and/or heat and pressure used in the manufacturing process of those materials lessens the likelihood of infestation by dangerous insects. For more information on requirements for crates made from wood and wood products, read the Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade from the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures. Check out the patented Sure-Lok Systems crates available in plywood, OSB and corrugated cardboard. Scroll over each crate on the right side to see the benefits and what each is best suited for. Order plastic crates from Rehrig Pacific Company for shipping beverages and produce.

Order crates with optional accessories

Crate manufacturers/suppliers typically offer several options to increase crate functionality and efficiency -- options that offer better protection for the crates' contents or ease of movement. Additionally, manufacturers either assemble or let end users assemble crates using nails, glue, clips or other fasteners. If you plan to reuse your crates, opt first for collapsible ones. They store easier and cost less to ship back since they take up less space.

I recommend: Caseworks Crating and Shipping offers extras for its wood shipping crates like entry doors, A-frames, D-rings, foam padding/strips, gussets, handles, inspection windows, link locks and more. Order your next wooden shipping crates from Quick-Crate if you need accessories like shelving, dunnage, custom cradles, barcoding, stenciling, lift handles, ramp doors or removable casters.

Find shipping crates suited to your product

Don't settle for one-size-fits all, since most crate suppliers or manufacturers can build you the exact size and shape crate you need.

I recommend: The Packaging Store specializes in crating fragile, large, awkward and valuable items, and they'll even come to your place of business to pick up the item or crate on site. Innovative Crating Solutions provides reusable or single-use, custom-built solid hardwood crates to your specs. The company specializes in custom wood crates for air, land and sea domestic/international shipments, and its clients include pharmaceutical, manufacturing, government, institutional and commercial companies, as well as galleries, museums and a former U.S. president.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you've got to crate and then ship an item to a customer, but you're still building the product, go ahead and start your crate shopping. For custom shipping crates, you can still provide the product's measurements and weight to the crate manufacturer, helping ensure your customer gets your product on time.

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A frames

One aspect of crating is selecting a type of structure. For wooden crates, this means choosing from several options, including an A frame. An A frame is a simple vertical structure held in place by side trusses.

I recommend: Find visual and text representation of an A frame type as well as a lot of other crate vocabulary at Caseworks.

Open and closed crates

An open crate is a crate that has been built to have space between planks. A closed crate is one that has no such gaps. Open and closed crates are some of the most common types of crate structures.

I recommend: Read up on crate types as well as distinctions between a crate and a box at India-Crafts.

Cleats

Cleats are boards that are added to any given panel of a crate to help provide more support.

I recommend: See more on cleats and other handy crate terms at Siegmann.org.

Triwall crate

A triwall crate is designed to be lightweight for long moves. The triwall is an alternative to a basic wooden crate.

I recommend: See more on triwall crates, basic wooden crate designs, and crate safety at Six Steps to Safe Shipment.

Oriented Strand Board (OSB)

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is a processed wood product that has become another option for building crates, an alternative to plywood or other basic wood options.

I recommend: Find more about OSB at the OSB Guide. BuildingProducts.com also has information about OSB crates.

Consolidation crate

This type of specialized crate contains different sections for specific freight components.

I recommend: Read up on consolidation crates, cushioned crates and other specialized crate types from CDC Packaging.