The Real Secret to Faster Shipping Isn’t Speed—It’s Preparation

Every warehouse wants faster shipping. Managers buy new software, push overtime, and add staff—anything to shave a few minutes off turnaround time. But the real secret to faster shipping isn’t found in the clock. It’s found on your supply shelves. The best operations know that speed starts long before a single label prints. It starts with preparation, and that preparation depends entirely on the quality and organization of your shipping supplies.

If your team has to dig through rolls of tape that don’t stick, boxes that don’t fit, or fillers that run out mid-order, you’re not losing minutes—you’re losing profit. Chaos at the packing table is like a slow leak in a tire. It doesn’t stop you immediately, but it drains performance day after day until you’re running flat. The solution isn’t to push harder; it’s to simplify smarter. High-quality, well-organized shipping supplies turn frantic packing into a smooth, repeatable rhythm.

Start with your boxes. Cheap boxes collapse, tear, and waste space. Double-walled corrugated cartons, sized properly to your most common shipments, keep goods safe and stacks neat. That alone can cut rework time by 20 percent or more. Next, rethink your tape. Water-activated tape bonds once, seals tight, and eliminates the triple-taping habit that eats labor. Then upgrade your void fill. Recyclable kraft paper systems let workers pull, tear, and stuff in seconds—no wasted time fiddling with air pillows or plastic peanuts that scatter across the floor. Every small upgrade is a step toward a faster, cleaner workflow.

Preparation also means placement. Speed isn’t possible when supplies live wherever they last landed. Create a supply map. Keep boxes arranged by size, labels pre-printed, and tape dispensers within one arm’s reach. An organized station saves more time than any motivational speech ever will. When workers know exactly where everything is, their pace becomes natural—not rushed, but steady and confident. Efficiency feels calm, not chaotic.

Eco-friendly shipping supplies can make the process even smoother. Paper-based cushioning loads into dispensers faster than plastic rolls, breaks down cleanly, and requires less cleanup. Recycled mailers weigh less, saving freight costs and strain. Even switching to recycled cardboard dividers reduces clutter while strengthening each box. When your materials are sustainable, they tend to be simpler, lighter, and better designed—traits that naturally boost efficiency.

The financial benefit runs deeper than labor savings. Quality supplies reduce product damage, return shipping, and customer complaints. A stronger box and better tape can eliminate entire categories of loss. Meanwhile, eco-friendly options cut waste-disposal costs and improve your brand image without a marketing budget. Every dollar spent on smarter materials pays you back in fewer headaches and happier customers.

The fastest warehouses don’t run on adrenaline—they run on systems. They know that the path to speed is paved with preparation. When every worker uses the same high-quality materials, every process becomes predictable. Predictability creates speed because it removes decision-making and eliminates variation. The right shipping supplies make it possible to pack more orders per hour without adding more stress or staff.

If you want your warehouse to run faster, don’t start with the stopwatch. Start with the shelf. Replace the weak, wasteful, and outdated materials with ones that perform the first time and last longer. Organize them so anyone can find what they need in seconds. That’s how real efficiency is built—not through panic or pressure, but through preparation. Faster shipping is simply the result of a system that’s ready before the order even arrives.

Is it Time to Move to Recyclable Packaging 

Should you change over to recycled materials? Here, we’ll discuss whether or not it’s good for you to do. Is this the solution that you’ve been looking for? Before you pull the trigger on packaging, remember there are a few things that you should ask before you decide, to make sure to look at whether or not the packaging is worth it or not. 

Is it Sustainable 

With more and more laws being put into place to push for recycling, it’s something that’s successful for a lot of people, and it improves the rates of recycling while also reducing the amount of landfill waste is left around. 

This is something that’s viable for the long-term, and it ca be a part of the solution to the problem globally. But also, it’s important to understand that while it’s good, it’s not effective for everything, and you need to make sure that you also look at the demand for resources which are natural in order to create this. 

The benefits 

Recycling is something that helps to maximize the use of something that already exists, and it gives something that’s already been used another possible chance, since this is something that can be beneficial. That means that the packaging world can benefit from a lot of this, especially if you want to make sure that it’s from partly or totally recycled items. It also does conserve a lot of the resources that are there. It’s less harmful to our environment to recycle rather than to continuously produce these materials, which means less tress to be cut, and less habits that are there disturbed, and of course, fewer pollution from this as well. 

It also reduces the landfill waste, which is a major problem. Because the trash gets left there it is either burned, buried, or just left there, and it pollutes our world. Recycling reduces the waste and all of that by extending the amount of materials that are used, and the repurpose items that would otherwise be tossed out. 

It’s also quite easy to do. There are more and more ways now than ever before to recycle, and it’s something that a lot of consumers are using, and a bit of them are versed in it already, so it’s much more viable. Customers also like sustainability, so you can use it as a marketing tactic. 

Drawbacks 

While there are some benefits, there are a few drawbacks that come with this, since it can play a part in how much your company and their budget can handle something such as this. First and foremost, not everybody recycles, so it may not be worth it. It’s important to look at the consumer base, see if there is a possibility of it happening, and also to see if this plays a big part in it.  You can encourage them, but not everyone will follow through. 

It also is something that isn’t permanent, and it’s something that can be hard for a few thing’s paper is recycled, but it does degrade. While you can recycle a lot, it does only have so many times before it will decompose.  It is something to consider. 

Finally, it can be difficult.  Recycling plastic is very costly in some places, so it’s important to make sure that you look at whether or not it’s even possible. If it’s mixed plastic, it may not be exportable. There is also the fact that not every type of plastic is recyclable, so it’s vital to know if this is imperative or will impact how you recycle too.