Southbound Consolidated Forwarding

Mar 07

philsnySouthbound Forwarding , , , , , , , No Comments

ProPack’s Southbound Package Forwarding is a service that provides Canadian businesses a way to get packages to their U.S. customers in a cost-effective and efficient way. This service allows Canadian clients the flexibility to pick and pack from their own location in British Columbia, then consolidate their shipments together and courier them down to ProPack’s facility in Blaine, WA. At ProPack the shipments are broken apart and shipped out on domestic services.

The service is broken down into these cost-saving and value-added steps:

  1. Flexible timing for consolidated pickups in the lower mainland
  2. Border clearance through your Customs Broker, or one of our Customs Broker partners
  3. Domestic U.S. shipping to your clients using your choice of carrier (e.g., UPS, Fed Ex, US Postal Service, DHL)

The entire process is technology-driven, providing you with online access to tracking information, charges, history and much more.

ProPack’s southbound consolidated forwarding program reduces the cost for Canadian clients directly shipping their product into the states. It also adds value through giving them online visibility throughout the process as well as access to their historical information through reports and statistics.

For more information please visit our website at www.propack.com.

The Value of Order History

Feb 28

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History logging in any system is handy. However, when dealing with 3rd Party Logistics and Order Fulfillment the history of an order through a system from receipt to billing is invaluable. Many challenges can face an order in its travels and careful documentation of the steps along the path can avoid frustrations for both the client and the fulfillment house.

At ProPack our WMS system, P3PL (ProPack 3rd Party Logistics), tracks the history of each order that moves through our system. Some of the basic steps recorded are:

  1. Order received date/time, method and by whom
  2. Date/time inventory successfully allocated and any troubles in this area
  3. Date/time scanned and/or picked
  4. Date/time processed (shipped on FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, or LTL)
  5. Date/time closed (order finished and final charges applied)

When everything goes smoothly with an order it’s history is almost never reviewed. However, when challenges arise order history becomes a vital source for troubleshooting.

Say an order is unable to move through the allocation process at ProPack because one or more of its items do not currently exist in inventory. ProPack’s order release specialist notifies the client via email each time this happens. But assume the client does not get the email for any of a variety of reasons.

Several days later the client is wondering why the order has not shipped out. They can check the online history for their order in P3PL and see that ProPack has tried to allocate the order each day for past several days. This is possible because the order history reflects each time the allocation process fails and an email is sent to the client. At this point the client can work with ProPack to adjust the order in addition to looking into why they were not receiving their email.

History is beneficial for both clients and fulfillment houses when anything out of the ordinary happens along a systemized process. At ProPack, in addition to our order fulfillment process, we work to incorporate history into all our core system functions. These histories are made available online for our clients to take advantage. We do this to add transparency to our processes and build value for our clients.

For more information please visit our website at www.propack.com.

Shipping With Multiple Carriers

Feb 21

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Many fulfillment houses either use one or two specific carriers, i.e. UPS and US Mail.  Or they ship 3rd party on their client’s accounts via their client’s specified carriers. While this may initially seem to offer the greatest flexibility to the client or capitalize on volume rates with a single carrier, it can lead to paying too much for shipping. At ProPack we use our own accounts to ship with all major small package carriers in order to reduce costs and add value to our clients and their customers.

Through using the combined volume of all ProPack’s shipments we’re able to negotiate great rates with all major small package carriers, (FedEx, UPS, US Mail and DHL). This allows ProPack to offer highly competitive rates to our clients, saving them significantly over what they could get on their own.

Furthermore, by dealing will all major parties we’re not locked into one carrier’s offerings and can provide a diverse portfolio of shipping services. ProPack can use one carrier for air shipments, another for ground and a third for international. In addition we’ve able to combine services like UPS’s Mail Innovations and FedEx’s Smart Post to provide a great single option for inexpensive non-time-sensitive shipments.

Finally, ProPack is in a position to consult with our clients on the best possible solution for their shipping needs. While FedEx and UPS ground are virtually identical in many respects, FedEx will deliver one day earlier to many zones in the US. For international shipments DHL and FedEx both are viable options, however there are certain countries that one will ship to while the other will not. In addition, UPS Mail Innovations and FedEx Smart Post are viable alternatives to shipping Ground and can come in less expensive than shipping US Mail.

Part of ProPack’s value added service is our portfolio of carrier options and services along with our knowledge and experience on which is best for every scenario. To find out more on our shipping options visit us at www.propack.com.

For more information please visit our website at www.propack.com.

The Path of an Order

Jan 10

philsnyOrder Fulfillment, WMS , , , , , , , , , No Comments

Orders are the lifeblood of any Fulfillment Warehouse. At ProPack we are not in the business of storing product, but in the business of shipping orders. Thus we’ve worked hard over the years to build custom technology to facilitate the path of an order through our system. We’ve done this not only to make our internal processes more efficient but to build value for our clients through faster service and greater supply chain visibility.

First, orders need to be input into our WMS system – www.p3pl.com (ProPack 3rd Party Logistics) . This can be done through web-to-web transactions, direct online entry, by emailing an Excel sheet, or by using our QuickBooks interface.

Once orders are in P3PL an order release specialist uses our automated system to allocate inventory to the order. If problems arise in this process such as inventory shortages the client is notified immediately.

Next the order is taken to one of our experienced order pickers who (again using P3PL) scan the order off the shelf by location, and lot number if necessary. Scanning product reduces errors by close to 1 in 10,000.

After scanning, the contents of the order are taken to the packaging stations where they are arranged into their shipping packages.

Finally the closed and sealed packages are processes on our customized multi-carrier manifest system for FedEx, UPS, USPS or DHL. After they are processed packages are then picked up by their respective carriers and leave our building.

However, the process does not stop there. Each evening nightly transaction reports are sent out containing all shipping and inventory transactions for the day. As well, all information is available on www.p3pl.com to any of our clients.

The path of our client’s orders through our system is a well thought out science that let’s our clients get product to their customers as quickly and accurately as possible. This builds value for ProPack, adds value to our client’s and delivers value to our client’s customers.

For more information please visit our website at www.propack.com.