Posted in 3PL
Shipping Hot Tubs: A Retailer's Guide
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Relaxing in a hot tub is becoming increasingly popular with Canadian homeowners. According to a report by Business Wire, the Canadian hot tub market is growing and is expected to reach USD 84 million by 2025.
As a retailer, shipping hot tubs to customers can present a number of challenges, some of which we’ll discuss here and offer some solutions as well.
Hot Tubs are large and heavy
Let’s face it: these are bulky, oversized and overweight items that require specialized handling and transportation. A typical 4-6 person hot tub might weigh 500-1,000 lbs., and larger models can weigh up to 1,500 lbs.
Hot tubs also take up a lot of inventory space in your facility or warehouse, and staff need to be properly trained to avoid injuries.
Pro Tip: consider a reliable transportation partner that specializes in large and bulky items, and that has warehouse space to accommodate your inventory.
Damages and Injuries = loss of revenue & decreased customer satisfaction
Incorrect handling by improperly trained staff may lead to the hot tubs being damaged in the warehouse, when loading on the delivery truck, in transit to the client, or during unloading at the customer site.
Your staff may also be injured in the process and be out of commission for an undefined period of time, affecting both their health and your business operations; and it may also impact both your sales and your bottom line.
Damages also greatly affect customer satisfaction and may introduce unacceptable order delivery delays from the customer’s point of view.
Pro Tip: Find a transportation company with trained staff experienced in handling fragile items for you.
Shipping Costs & Logistics
As mentioned above, hot tubs can weigh up to 1,500 lbs and require a delivery vehicle that is sized appropriately. Maybe your regular local transportation company can’t accommodate your shipments or maybe they can only handle one at a time, increasing your shipping costs and adding delays to deliveries. You can’t afford to waste your time calling around to find a suitable delivery company for different shipments.
Pro Tip: Rely on a transportation partner that can easily accommodate all of your shipments regardless of their size or weight, and that can manage your inventory for you.
Don’t be in Hot Water When Delivering Hot Tubs
It’s clear by now that delivering hot tubs to customers is no easy feat due to their size and weight, the potential for damages and injuries during handling and delivery, and due to logistics and cost challenges.
The key to overcoming these challenges is selecting a reliable transportation company that specializes in oversized or overweight items, that has trained & experienced staff, and that can manage your inventory for you. All of this will make a significant of difference in your business, your profitability and your customer satisfaction levels.
High Energy Transport Inc. Is Your Reliable Transportation Partner
We have a ton of experience handling non-conveyables such as BBQs, wood and lumber, bikes, and delivering them to customers across the country.
We have warehouses in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and in Cornwall, and are able to handle shipments to and from the Port of Montreal for our clients.
We treat and value every single customer as if they were our very first client.
We are here and willing to help you and your business in any way we can; please rest assured that your shipments are in good hands with us. Please contact us for a quote.
Posted in:Final Mile DeliveryShipping3PLSupply Chain |
The Challenges of Shipping BBQ Grills to Customers: A Retailer's Guide
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In the summer, there’s nothing better than spending time outdoors with friends and family, and of course that means it’s BBQ season! According to Statista, the Canadian BBQ market is projected to grow to $610 million by 2024.
BBQ retailers face a number of challenges when shipping BBQ grills to their customers, considering the overall size and weight of the boxes and the possibility of damage during transit. But there are also solutions to explore…
BBQs are big and bulky
Some of the grills are quite large and heavy, and the boxes can be cumbersome to handle – not to mention expensive to ship. For example,
some large outdoor kitchen islands may need to be stacked on a pallet in order to keep all the pieces together. High shipping costs may deter some customers from buying from you.
Pro Tip: Partner with experienced transportation company that specialize in non-conveyables like BBQ grills.
Damage During Delivery
Although the BBQ grills are neatly packaged, damage to the boxes and possibly to the BBQ components may occur during handling, transportation and delivery. This leads to customer complaints and costly returns for your business.
Pro Tip: Find a transportation company with experience in handling fragile items.
Delivery and On-Site Assembly
Assembling a BBQ at a customer’s home can be challenging, especially in terms of coordinating the delivery and the arrival of the technician. Sure, the technician could bring the BBQ with him to every home, but that means a lot of running back and forth to the store to get the next unit. This wastes both time and money. One solution is to preassemble the grill in your store, but that lends itself to more damage during shipping as the grill is no longer in its original box and must be packaged differently for transit.
Pro Tip: Rely on a transportation partner that can warehouse your items and drop ship them at the right time at the customer’s location.
Seasonality and Inventory Management
The demand for BBQ grills is quite seasonal, with surges in Spring and Summer and quieter times during Fall and Winter. Retailers must plan and time their inventory purchases in line with customer demand. Order too much too soon and you have inventory and space management issues; order too little too late and you have dissatisfied customers and a revenue shortfall.
Pro Tip: Pick a transportation partner that can manage your inventory for you; freeing up space in your store and reducing inventory management problems.
Avoid Headaches With Delivering BBQs
As we’ve discussed, delivering BBQs grill orders to your customers can be quite challenging due to their large and bulky nature, potential damage during delivery and inventory management issues.
Choosing a reliable transportation company that can hold and manage your inventory; that specializes in oversized or overweight items, and that can drop ship to your customer’s location on time, can make a world of difference in your business, your profitability and your customer satisfaction levels.
High Energy Transport Inc. Is Your Reliable Transportation Partner
We have a ton of experience handling non-conveyables such as gym equipment, bikes, outdoor furniture, mattresses, sheds and large screen TVs and delivering them to customers across the country.
We have warehouses in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and in Cornwall, and are able to handle shipments to and from the Port of Montreal for our clients.
We treat and value every single customer as if they were our very first client.
We are here and willing to help you and your business in any way we can; please rest assured that your shipments are in good hands with us. Please contact us for a quote.
Posted in:Final Mile Delivery3PL |
High Energy Transport Opens New Cornwall Warehouse – Serving the Port of Montreal
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Exciting news: High Energy Transport is launching its new container business and opening a new facility in Cornwall, ON.
Our new state-of-the-art container facility and warehouse in Cornwall will be able to handle 20 and 40 ft containers that can be picked up from or shipped to the Port of Montreal.
The Cornwall container facility is slated to be fully operational in December 2022 or early January 2023, and we’ll be offering destuffing, warehousing, cross-docking and shipping services to our clients in the Cornwall facility.
With close coordination and daily hauls between our Bolton Head Office and our new Cornwall warehouse, we can effectively and quickly serve our customers between the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Montreal.
Port of Montreal – Did you know?
As the second largest port in Canada, the Port of Montreal is on the shortest shipping route between the US Midwest and The Great Lakes in North America on the one side, and Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean on the other side.
According to Port of Montreal statistics, more than 34 million tons of goods were handled in 2021 from over 2000 ships. Up to 2500 trucks per day and 60 to 80 trains per week carry these goods to and from the port.
The Port of Montreal is seen as one of the most innovative ports in the world, and has won numerous international awards for its operations, the quality of its infrastructures and its sustainable development initiatives.
Your ideal transportation partner: High Energy Transport Inc.
Whether you’re a manufacturer, a retailer or an OEM manufacturer, if you need to move your products and shipments quickly between Toronto and Montreal, High Energy Transport Inc. is your ideal partner.
Why? Our experienced staff can handle high volumes and large shipments – and we specialize in large and bulky your non-conveyables that others just can’t handle effectively.
With our centrally-located warehouses in the Toronto area and Cornwall and our Final Mile Delivery services, we get you closer to your clients faster.
We treat and value every single customer as if they were our very first client.
We are here and willing to help you and your business in any way we can; please rest assured that your shipments are in good hands with us. Please contact us for a quote.
Posted in:WarehousingFinal Mile DeliveryShipping3PLMontrealPortCornwall |
Turn Up the Heat on Your Furnace Installation Business
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Heating season has hit Southern Ontario a few weeks ago, and many homeowners have discovered their old furnace is not so reliable anymore and may be giving uneven heat. Time to get that fixed before winter hits!
Snapshot: HVAC Contractors Market Sizing
The Heating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Contractors market size in Canada is estimated at $14.7bn in 2022 according to IBISWorld, up 3.3% from the year before.
The challenge: running a profitable furnace business
Owning and operating a business that sells and installs furnaces has become more difficult in the past few years due to:
- Availability of furnaces – worldwide supply chain issues
- A significant increase in cost of materials – everything has gone up in price
- Labour shortages – how do you find qualified people willing to work?
Many HVAC businesses have shrunk in sales and in size due to the factors mentioned above, and have had to cut costs as a result. Many are now a 1 or 2 man show driving around from customer to customer, trying to maintain or grow their business and keep customers happy with timely installs.
Time is Money
This old adage is nothing new to Furnace installation contractors, but many don’t really consider the impact of constantly driving back and forth to their office to get the furnace for the next job.
It’s actually quite simple:
The more time you spend driving to get the furnaces and deliver them, the less time you spend installing, and therefore the lower the amount of billing you can generate.
The better way: Have High Energy Transport Inc. deliver your furnaces for you
Let us do what we do best: we’ll make sure all of your customers’ furnaces are delivered on time at their home so you can focus on doing what you do best, which is servicing your clients.
You don’t have to worry about delivering furnaces any more, or to run back and forth to your office to get the furnace for the next install. We’re sure you’ll see an improvement in your efficiency, profit and overall customer satisfaction as you focus on installing furnaces.
Don’t wait: Call High Energy Transport Inc. today
Why? Our experienced staff can handle these bulky furnaces, and we can easily accommodate your inventory from our centrally-located warehouse as it transits to your job sites with our Final Mile Delivery services. We are perfectly suited to handle your non-conveyables and have done so reliably for many of our clients over the years.
We treat and value every single customer as if they were our very first client.
We are here and willing to help you and your business in any way we can; please rest assured that your shipments are in good hands with us. Please contact us for a quote.
Contact Us for a Quote
Posted in:WarehousingFinal Mile DeliveryShipping3PL |
4 Problems to Avoid When Delivering Mattresses
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We love our mattresses, but sometimes we hate them too… Given that we spend approximately one third of our lives sleeping, it’s no wonder mattresses play such an important role in our well-being. Many of us also love to read or watch TV in bed; some of us have breakfast in bed, and then there’s, well, you know…
As much as a good mattress can improve the quality of everyday life, getting those mattresses delivered to customers quickly and efficiently is key to creating a high customer satisfaction experience.
Canadian Mattress Industry Data
The Canadian mattress and accessories market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 1.7% to reach $27.B in 2024 according to a report available at ResearchAndMarkets.com.
While it is a more modest industry growth, it does present many opportunities for mattress manufacturers and retailers to increase their revenues and their market shares.
Here’s our list of the top 4 problems to avoid in your mattress delivery business:
1. Can’t handle order volume
If you’re relying on 2 guys with a truck to deliver your mattresses to your clients, yes you may be saving some costs in the short term, but can they handle the volume of orders? You may have to deal with multiple “2 guys with a truck” to fulfill your orders, and that actually adds cost to your business as it’s not a scalable business model.
Solution: use a reliable transportation and logistics partner with a fleet of trucks that can handle your order volume. Faster delivery means more revenue and higher customer satisfaction.
Hint: High Energy Transport Inc. (HET) has a fleet of vehicles to handle your order volume.
2. Can’t cover your delivery area
Yes those 2 guys with a truck can deliver your mattresses to many cities and towns, but do they actually cover the entire GTA efficiently? If they have to deliver a memory foam mattress to Oshawa then a spring mattress to Niagara Falls, that’s a lot of time wasted driving, and significantly reduces the number of mattresses that can be delivered in a day.
We know that in this day and age consumers expect next day delivery, and that delivery delays directly impact your all-important Google Reviews.
Solution: use a reliable transportation and logistics partner with a fleet of trucks that can cover the entire GTA. Save time and effort, increase customer satisfaction.
Hint: HET covers the entire GTA with its fleet of vehicles.
3. Improper material handling
Let’s face it: mattresses are big and bulky, they can be quite heavy and cumbersome as well because of their sheer size. Are your delivery partners properly trained to deliver inside a customer’s house – and remove the old mattress – safely and without damaging the customer’s home?
Solution: make sure your delivery service has properly trained staff to avoid damage and injuries, which saves time and reduces shipping costs.
Hint: HET has professionally-trained staff and follow all the applicable health and safety protocols; and that includes good customer manners as well.
4. No inventory management
Can your mattress delivery partner take inventory off your hands and manage it for you? Or do they have to constantly run back to your warehouse?
Solution: use a reliable transportation and logistics partner that has a warehouse and that can handle some of your inventory for you, reducing your costs and improving your delivery times.
Hint: HET has a centrally-located warehouse and we can direct ship to your clients for you.
High Energy Transport Inc. can help you drive cost out of your mattress delivery needs.
Let High Energy Transport Inc. handle your delivery and warehousing needs for your big and bulky items like mattresses. Focus on serving your customers and keeping them happy.
High Energy Transport Inc. has a centrally-located warehouse in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that’s easily accessible from most major highways, which means we can quickly deliver those oversized and overweight mattresses to your customers on your behalf with our Final Mile Delivery services, and we offer optional White Glove Services to deliver straight to the bedroom and even remove the old mattresses for you.
We can help your business more become more efficient by saving you time, effort and money; just give us a call.
Posted in:WarehousingFinal Mile DeliveryShipping3PL |