Fig. 10. Routing Package Labels
In all blanks used in shipping, the same color scheme is carried out. This includes shipping orders, packing orders, invoices, shipping receipts, and labels. All orders are properly routed before they are distributed to the billing machine operators for entry. Each operator enters orders for certain railroads—from one to three, depending on the distribution of the trade—and is supplied with blanks of proper color for those roads only. Every order is then entered on blanks of the color representing the railroad over which the shipment is routed.
In Fig. 10 is shown a label which represents this color scheme. Across the end of the label is a solid block of color, with the name of the road in an open letter. All printing on the label is also of the same color. If the order is properly routed and entered, there is very little chance for shipments to go astray. On every blank and on the package itself, the color of the road is a prominent feature, and since all blanks are written at the same time, they must correspond. Should a package be placed in the wrong section, it is practically certain that the error will be discovered when the goods are loaded on the dray.
EXPORT SHIPPING
Export shipping is a subject about which the average American house knows but little, and herein appears to lie the cause of the loss of much foreign trade. This is especially true of trade with other than English-speaking countries. But the real fault lies farther back than in the shipping department.
The trouble starts in the sales department. Export business is undertaken without special preparation, and an attempt is made to apply the methods used in handling domestic trade. Special instructions in regard to packing, for instance, are ignored because the American thinks he knows more than his customer in a foreign land.
Before export business is even attempted, the sales department should become thoroughly familiar with conditions in the country with which it wishes to do business. Some man in the department should study the customs regulations, the descriptions necessary, the kind of packing needed, and the size of package best adapted to the country. Above all, he must study the desires of the trade, and conform to them, if he expects to make and hold customers.
Special importance is attached to the question of packing and describing the goods. No matter how unreasonable the request of the customer or the foreign salesman may seem, it should be complied with, for it is made for some good reason. A request of a merchant in Omaha, ordering dry goods from Chicago, that goods ordinarily packed in a large case be packed in small oblong boxes, might very properly be ignored; but not so if the customer is located in a South American republic. There, if the goods are to go to the interior, they must be transported over the mountains on the backs of pack mules.
Besides making the packages of suitable size, goods for export must be packed to withstand hard usage, and must be well protected against the elements. Goods must be fully and accurately described in order that they may pass the custom house. The dimensions of each package must be shown on the shipping bills, for freight rates are based on the space occupied in the hold of the ship, rather than on weight.