You’ve probably never thought twice about moving your bottle of alcohol from the store to your home. All it requires is a cargo bag or a newspaper for wrapping. However, such a mindset can barely run in a brewery.
Here, transport is often an issue of concern when transporting alcohol from the factory to suppliers. Wrong handling, and you could waste all your production resources. How, then, should you transport alcohol for breweries?
It’s a question that this article answers; read on! And here’s a guide to follow:
Find A Logistic Partner
Running a brewery is no small feat. You must monitor production, attend meetings, advertise your business, and practice bookkeeping, among other duties. With all these responsibilities, you might find it challenging to handle logistics, which is involving.
Instead, consider hiring a logistics company that transports alcohol in bulk. They’re experts at the job and will handle it correctly and easily. Their expertise also assures you they’ll protect your goods from theft during transit.
This team also has the right resources, from vehicles to workers, all at a one-time fee for their services. And working independently would mean buying or hiring these vehicles, which can be expensive.
According to Brew Movers, one of the alcohol logistics providers, it’s best to leave the heavy lifting to the experts. Therefore, take advantage of this for the efficient running of your business.
Consider Temperature
Alcohol is made of many components, some of which are sensitive to certain conditions. In most cases, aged and expensive alcohol tend to be easily affected by surrounding temperatures. In extreme temperatures, especially high, you’ll find the quality of the bottle degrading, with others disintegrating. Overall, it’ll lead to poor-quality beer or wine.
Therefore, you must consider the temperature when bulk transporting alcohol for breweries. It’s best to use a vehicle with refrigerators to maintain temperature and one with controlled humidity, especially for long-distance travel. In most cases, short-distance travel shouldn’t worry you regarding temperature.
Use The Right Packaging
Alcohol tends to be delicate during transportation. It’s the case since you’ll use glass bottles that can break and metal cans that can deform. However, with the right packaging, it’s something that shouldn’t worry you too much.
The right packaging entails using the right boxes to pack the alcohol. The aim is to prevent the bottles from knocking against each other or falling. It’d help to purchase packaging cartons with dividers for the glass bottles. The dividers can be for each bottle or every two or three bottles.
To prevent falling, ensure the carton is made of thick material, so it can’t tear during loading and off-loading. You should also cushion it at the bottom.
Lastly, choose the right-sized packaging for your alcohol. The carton shouldn’t be too big or too small, especially if it has no dividers. If it’s too big, there’ll be a lot of movement, with the bottles knocking against each other. It’d also be a waste of resources. If it’s too small, the bottles or cans could spill over the carton’s top and end up on the vehicle’s floor.
Consider Having Insurance
As a brewery, your main income source comes from selling your alcohol. You hope the journey will be smooth during transportation without any hitches. However, it always isn’t the case.
Your vehicle could get into an accident, and all the bottles break, or the public could loot them. Such events could take your business to losses. Therefore, it’s important to safeguard your products during transit.
One way is by taking out suitable insurance coverage. It’ll compensate you in the occurrence of an insured risk. Suppose you opt to work with a logistics partner. And working with a partner with such insurance coverage is best to protect your goods.
Look At Laws And Regulations
Alcohol is a regulated substance in most states, especially on the drinking age. However, some laws govern the transportation of alcohol.
As a business owner, please research any alcohol transportation and packaging rules in your state. You want to be on the right side of the law and avoid fines and penalties that reduce business profits. One common law is to have clear warning signs on the intake of alcohol.
Suppose you’re transporting liquor between states. Ensure you know any laws that might hinder your operations in the said country and adhere to them appropriately. You can find this data online or in the given state’s statute.
Conclusion
The discussion above has given a simple but effective guide to assist you when moving and transporting alcohol for breweries. The guide mainly entails adhering to laws and choosing the right packaging and transport means for your goods.
Therefore, it’s best to implement this guide as a brewery owner or manager. It’ll make the logistics aspect of your business easy to handle, allowing you to focus on your other operations.
