How Does a Little Blank Label Affect Such a Huge Part of the Shipping World?

For such a little label, blank thermal and direct thermal labels are a huge part of what makes the distribution center world go round. More and more businesses, regardless of size, are moving towards thermal /direct thermal options to ship out their products. Why is that exactly?

Very small retail establishments were using the traditional method of printing out their packing list and label, folding it, putting it into an adhesive backed plastic pouch, and affixing it to the package. As technology has evolved, and more product options have been developed, many are discovering that even the smallest of establishments can benefit from a more efficient, cost reductive, method of shipping their products to their customers. There have been lots of great products introduced to help in this area, but none as much as direct thermal and thermal labels.

What makes them unique is you don’t have to run them through a laser printer, so the cost for printing consumables goes down tremendously.  Instead, depending on the material choice, you run your labels through a thermal printer, which uses a thermal ribbon, or a direct thermal printer, which uses a print head, to create the image on the label. Either method is much more cost effect than toner in most cases. The standard size for most companies is a 4x6” which is perfect for most shipping labels. Larger fc’s utilize smaller sizes of thermal labels to print tracking barcodes. These barcodes are used internally to track where the package is within the facility. There are so many great ways to customize your process using a variety of sizes, materials and adhesive options.

If you are struggling with speed and efficiency, going with direct thermal or thermal labels could be the answer. It is definitely worth the investment.