Many costs, convenience, and safety factors must be considered when determining the best type container for storing, shipping and protecting your company’s valuable product(s).

Here are the Seven Reasons to Use Bulk Bags Rather Than Drums or Boxes:

1. Drums/barrels do not collapse when empty. Drums take up as much space when shipped to your warehouse and when stored before fill as when they are full.
2. The average unit cost of drums or corrugated (Gaylord) boxes is significantly higher than the average unit cost of equivalent bags.
3. Boxes and drums must be transported on a pallet, which presents an additional cost and adds 32 to 36 pounds per pallet to the shipping weight of your product. Bags require no pallets and can be carried easily by forklift using the lifting loops.
4. Since boxes and drums weigh more and require more space than bags the per unit packaging and shipping costs are higher once the cost of shipping to your plant is added. An intermodal container that can carry about 200 drums or 2,000 boxes will transport approximately 12,000 bulk bags. Even when folded up, only about 31 boxes can fit on a standard pallet compared to 190 bags, so your per unit shipping cost is significantly reduced with bags, plus the required storage space is much less.
5. When stacked during storage, drums can become unbalanced, turning into rolling safety hazards.
6. The capacity of a box or a drum cannot be customized to carry your product’s volume. Bags can be manufactured to hold the exact weight desired, such as 2,000 pounds of fertilizer.
7. Boxes require personnel to assemble them before use. There is virtually no labor time nor cost required to start using bulk bags.

Discuss your specific shipping and storage needs with a FlexSack Expert today by calling 205.620.9889 or by emailing sales@flexsack.com.