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The industry term Smalls refers to a size and media range of packaging that starts with thin corrugated or poly envelopes, poly bags for apparel, jiffy bubble packs, boxes, express packs that range in size (roughly) from 4”L x 4”W x 0.2” Tall to 24”L x 20”W x 20” tall.
All of these “Smalls” packages are the ideal size and construction to pack, ship and deliver their respective order contents.
The goal for minimal sizing began in 2014 when the major carriers (FedEx, UPS & DHL) decided to begin applying Dimensional Weigh Pricing to all packages regardless of weight. This means a 1’ x 1’ x 1’ weighing 8 lbs. cost the same as one weighing 1 lb. regardless of weight.
since 2014 has been the requirement to max out the cube of any truck carrying these packages, better utilization of package size to product shipped allowed for higher number of orders to be cubed in a truck.
Shippers make the packages as small as possible, to reduce cost of shipping charges, and still deliver the orders undamaged to consumers.
Naturally, this creates challenges in sortation systems that must handle larger packages with the smalls and ensuring the two sizes can be handled and managed accurately with as little damage as possible, all the while maintaining high throughput in the overall shipping system.
Which is why “Smalls” and larger than smalls are handled separately inside Fulfillment centers, Carrier centers and last Mile facilities, yet all travel on the same trucks to consumer doorsteps.
