How To Choose the Right Shipping Crate for Your Products

June 27, 2025

One of the most important parts of logistics is finding the right shipping crate for your goods. Shipping crates support and protect your products and ensure they reach your customers in excellent condition. But with so many options available, knowing which one is best for your transportation needs and goals can be challenging.

To help you make an informed decision, here’s a guide to choosing the right shipping crate for your products with practical steps and scenarios to consider.

1. Know Your Product

Your products or goods are unique. Understanding their sizes, weight, values, and materials is essential to selecting the right shipping crate.

Size

Measuring the size of your goods can help you pick suitable-sized crates. Here’s how to measure a crate for your shipping goods:

Determine the width, length and height of your products.
Using the same formula, measure different crates.
Next, compare the product measurement against the crate options.
Identify and choose a crate with sizes that comfortably fit your products.

Weight

Not all crates are built similarly, and some can support heavier loads. Understanding the weight of your products is essential to picking a crate that can support them.

Weigh your products using a scale or other method.
Once you have a figure, ask your supplier about different crate load capacities.
Select an option that can safely support your product weight.

Value and Fragility

Your goods are valuable, and some may cost more than others. Some products can also be more fragile and require more shipping support. Pick quality crates with the correct thickness and durability to ensure your goods have adequate protection. More rigid options are typically best for protecting high-value and fragile goods.

Shape

While crates are typically a standard shape, your goods are not. If you have irregularly shaped products, choose crates to fit them. Inspect the shape of your items and decide if they’ll fit snugly into a standard crate. If not, consider custom crates and find a supplier who offers them.

2. Understand Your Shipping Requirements

Your transportation requirements are another essential consideration when choosing a shipping crate. Different shipping methods require varying packaging protection, handling and compliance.

Transport Mode

The first question to ask yourself is whether you’re shipping via air, sea or land. Each method presents unique benefits and challenges. They also have different weight limits that you need to consider. Some critical factors for other transport modes include:

Sea: Products exposed to excess moisture require crates with additional protection, moisture-resistant materials, and good ventilation.
Air freight: Transporting cargo by air typically involves higher prices for heavy weights. However, lighter, less supportive crate materials can save on transportation time.
Land: Trucks or vans can incur longer transportation times and risk of impact, but they are more affordable.

Shipping Destination

Another concern is whether you’re shipping domestically or internationally. If you’re shipping to an overseas destination, you must factor in various laws and regulations. For example, ISPM-15 includes strict standards for wood materials to prevent the spread of pests and other contaminants during shipping. This requirement can impact the type of wood materials you use, and you’ll need to use crates that meet these standards.

Climate

The weather during transit can significantly impact your goods and your packaging choice. If your goods pass through high-humidity and rainy climates, you must consider moisture-resistant and durable materials.

Handling

The next question to answer is how crates will be loaded and unloaded. Consider the different methods, including forklifts, manual labour and cranes and how they can impact your packaging. For example, forklifts may have specific lifting requirements, and you may need a crate designed for them. Conversely, manual labour can include more handling errors, and more rigid crates can be best used to prevent damage.

3. Asses Crate Materials

Your crate material can impact your packaging protection and product condition. It also affects your packaging weight, costs and environmental impact. You must weigh the pros and cons of different materials to choose a suitable material.

Natural Wood

Wood is a standard crate and packaging material. It is typically used to ship agricultural goods, artwork, electronics, and other fragile items. While sturdy and durable, wood can also be heavy and high-maintenance. Here are some pros and cons to give you a clearer idea.

Pros:

Inexpensive compared to other materials.
Rigid and can withstand harsh weather and impact.
Easily customised to meet your shipping goals.
Wood is recyclable and offers more sustainable shipping.

Cons:

Wood is bulky and can increase your cargo weight and costs.
You must follow various regulations when shipping with wood crates, which can be time-consuming and costly.

Plastic

Plastic is another popular crate material with various advantages and drawbacks.

Pros:

Plastic is lightweight and can allow you to ship more at lower costs.
Some plastics can be durable and reusable, making them a reliable and sustainable option.

Cons:

The environmental impacts of plastic production are significant, and using it in your shipping can exacerbate these effects.

4. Consider Customisations

There is often no one-size-fits-all solution in shipping, and customisations are vital to ensuring your products have optimal support and protection. When picking a shipping crate, consider essential customisations like crate inserts, adjustable components, and branding. These parts are vital to streamline your logistics processes.

For example, instead of maintaining an inventory of different-sized and shaped crates, you can keep adjustable options that can be changed to meet different product specs. This versatility reduces storage requirements and increases flexibility to make last-minute packaging changes.

Another essential customisation is branding. A well-designed crate can improve your customer experience and your business reputation.

5. Think Sustainability

Various consumers are concerned with preserving the environment and minimising harmful practices. They may be more willing to buy from companies prioritising eco-friendliness, sustainable production, and shipping. It’s vital to consider the environmental impacts of your crate selection. To do this, here are some questions you can ask yourself when choosing a shipping crate:

Recyclable: Is your crate made from recyclable materials? If yes, how recyclable is it? If not, what effects will it have on the environment?
Reusable: Can you reuse your crate for multiple shipments? If so, in what capacity can they be reused and repurposed to limit production and environmental effects?

6. Calculate the Costs

Another crucial consideration is the cost of buying, assembling, storing, and transporting crates. You must calculate each cost to determine whether you are making the most economical and worthwhile decision.

Shipping costs: Consider how your cargo weight can impact fuel usage and transport costs.
Assembly time: Another important cost consideration is the time it takes to assemble or build your crate. This factor is often overlooked but can cost you more labour and time if your crate has complex assembly requirements.
Storage: Storage costs can significantly increase your total cost of ownership (TCO). Consider more space-savvy crates, such as adjustable or collapsible options, to help you save space and money.
Durability: While high-quality, durable crates can cost more upfront, they can save you long-term. These crates can be reusable, saving you money on production and space requirements.

7. Understand Regulations

When it comes to shipping, various rules and laws govern packaging. These regulations can add to your logistics processes and costs. It’s important to know whether they’re worth the time and effort. To do this, you must understand various compliance requirements:

ISPM 15

International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM 15) involve standards for treating wood to prevent pests and contaminants from spreading to countries through shipping materials and items. This regulation requires that wood products and shipping materials undergo various fumigations before transport. These treatments can be laborious, complex, and costly.

Industry-Specific Packaging

Industries transporting hazardous goods like pharmaceuticals and electronics require specific or unique packaging to preserve these items and prevent risks or harm during shipping. This specialised packaging can make your shipping more intricate and expensive.

International Export Rules

Some countries have unique packaging requirements to clear customs. If your packaging does not meet these specifications, they may be disallowed from entering the country and sent back. This process can not only be timely but costly.

8. Test

The last thing you want is to spend time and money on crates you can’t use. Before settling on a shipping crate, you must test it. Testing can help you identify and fix challenges before they become major issues. It can also help you optimise your packaging and logistics processes for maximum efficiency. Here are some assessments to consider:

Sample shipment: Send a few sample crates to different regions to test their performance. This sample test can help you understand how various materials perform in different conditions. It could also identify challenges that were not apparent in controlled testing.
Load/stress testing: You can evaluate your crate durability and performance with drop tests, vibration tests, or climate chamber tests that stimulate real-world scenarios like drops, turbulence and humidity in a controlled environment.
Feedback: Feedback is one of the most valuable parts of testing. Ask your logistics team and partners for feedback on the shipping process. You can also survey your customers on the packaging and product quality. This feedback can offer valuable insights into your crate performance and quality and help you make better future decisions.

Trust the Experts at Cooperage Pallets & Boxes

If you need professional insight and advice on choosing the right shipping crate, we can help. Cooperage Pallets & Boxes is a leading manufacturer and supplier of wooden crates. We offer various high-quality timber crates to meet your shipping needs and goals. Our crates are designed to be durable, lightweight, and cost-effective. They are tested against strict industry and export requirements and can be customised to meet your shipping needs.

Get a free quote today to get started with us.