A History of Shipping in the U.S.

February 23, 2016

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Benjamin Franklin is known for many things, like flying kites in storms, coming up with pithy sayings and rocking the prime spot on the hundred dollar bill.

To us at Ernest Packaging Solutions, we’re most  impressed that he was also appointed the first Postmaster General back on July 26th, 1775, by the Second Continental Congress. That’s right: the Post Office was around before the Declaration of Independence.

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This day in 1792 the U.S. Postal Service was created, which is a big deal. But one of the most important advances in shipping history, clearly, commenced with brothers Ernest and Charles Wilson, who founded our company in 1946. Let’s take a look at the milestones and progress made before and alongside our rich history on the way to today’s one-day delivery pace:

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Today, all major carriers ship by planes, trains and automobiles (well, trucks, actually). All of these are powerful machines, so instead of shipping by weight, modern carriers compute the price of shipments based on the size of the package, known as dimensional weight, or DIM weight.

Big packages that don’t weigh a lot can carry higher costs, unnecessary costs due to excessive packaging. Good news if you have a well-packaged, super-dense product, but not so good if you’ve got a lot of wasted space. At Ernest, we’re always looking for way to reduce waste and costs for our clients.

Are you ready to step into the today’s world of packaging? Contact us today to get new packaging that will lower your DIM weight and enable your packages to withstand all types of elements and conditions on its way to the intended destination!