I’m helping a commercial printing client of mine produce an 88-page-plus-cover perfect bound book of poems. It’s gratifying to assist in the creation of a literary work in a world where we seldom have time to pause and reflect.
The final details, prior to submission of InDesign files, have included such items as my client’s transferring funds to the book printer (to cover the paper purchase), confirming the book length and press run, and getting my client to think about delivery.
Delivery is usually not a concrete enough concept at this early stage, but it still helps to get my clients thinking early, since it will be all too real in about a month. Today I found a delivery manifest from a book printed for the same client about a year ago. I’m using it as a starting point. It actually raised some interesting issues I wanted to share with you.
Structure of the Delivery Form
When you think of the number of cartons needed for a 1,500-copy, or 10,000-copy run of a paperback book, it starts to make sense why you should draft a detailed delivery manifest. An error can require a lot of physical labor to fix.
In creating this delivery manifest the first items I added were the following four headings: “Number of Copies,” “Destination,” “Carrier,” and “Due Date.”
Number of Copies
Among other things, I made sure all of the deliveries added up to the total press run, no more, no less. You laugh, perhaps, but it’s easy to make a mistake here. This also forces you to think about the books (or other printed products) as complete, individual units. Prior to this, they may have been a collection of specifications including page counts, page sizes, paper choices, etc. Now they are individual units, and their distribution must be accurate.
Destination
Destination is a more complex item. Here I put not only the complete street address but also names and phone numbers of people responsible for taking delivery of the job. In many cases these contact people will need to know the delivery date and time prior to the truck’s arrival (by a certain number of hours or days).
Carrier
In some cases the printer will want to deliver the print books. In other cases, the printer will want to hire a separate carrier to deliver them. For my particular client, based on the location of the printer, the fulfillment house (rather than the printer) will drive to the printer’s factory, pick up the books, and drive back to the fulfillment house. It pays to spell all of this out on the delivery form. (It keeps you focused on the details of all of the deliveries, and it provides a single document that all participants in the production and distribution process can refer to—repeatedly.)
I also like to give the book printer the option of choosing the best way to deliver the job instead of making this decision myself. This is particularly true if the printer is far away geographically. No one knows better than the printer’s customer service representative which local trucking companies are the best, what their routes are, and how the job has been prepared (i.e., the number of cartons and whether the job will require a full truckload or an LTL—less than truckload—delivery). If this sounds complicated, what it really means is that the customer service representative can get the best deals, so it’s prudent to let her or him do the research. Just make sure he or she lets you know the options.
Mostly, the choice of carrier will depend on the delivery location, due date, and number of cartons and/or skids of print books (or other printed products).
Due Date
If you look closely at a printer’s estimate, you’ll see that some printers include the date shipped while others include the date delivered. Your main concern will be when the completed job will arrive at your warehouse. So make sure you discuss the due date early and include it on the delivery form, where all participants can see it. In most cases, the fulfillment houses, warehouses, etc., will want sufficient notice as to the window of time in which the delivery will occur.
Extra Information
I always ask all of the freight carriers for their own specific packing instructions. These can include the following:
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- Fulfillment houses may want all print books to have specific barcodes that display the U.S. price and ISBN.
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- Warehouses and fulfillment houses may want the book cartons to be marked with the book’s title, ISBN, carton quantity, and carton weight in both readable and barcode formats.
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- Warehouses may want shipments to be accompanied by a packing slip that indicates the quantity by title, the number of cartons on each pallet, and the number of pallets. They may want the packing slip attached to the pallet or inside an accessible carton marked “packing slip enclosed.”
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- They may require shipments of more than a limited number of (for example, 10) cartons or a certain number of (for example, 300) pounds to be palletized and shipped by truck to avoid rough handling and potential damage. They may also require that pallets not be double-stacked in the truck.
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- Warehouses and fulfillment houses may stipulate that shipping charges for books are the responsibility of the publisher, and that all shipments must be sent prepaid.
- They may have requirements for the size of the assembled pallet (for instance, 40″ x 48″ x 48″ high).
It is wise to do everything these warehouses and fulfillment houses request in order to ensure accurate shipment of the proper number of books, undamaged in transit, and accurately accounted for throughout the delivery process, the inventory, and the pack-and-ship fulfillment process.
What You Can Learn from This Case Study
The best thing you can learn is to be precise, comprehensive, and accurate. Once you have a delivery form like this, you essentially have a contract. All participants at your place of business (in marketing, new product development, etc.), as well as the printer and the distribution facility will have a physical document to which they can refer, and which they can amend if necessary.
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