Yes, you should never use inkjet printers due to the cost of the ink. The ink may also run when exposed to water such as some rain drops or snow flakes. Larger amounts of water will also damage it, but then larger amounts of water will also damage the box its attached to as well as boxes with thermal or laser labels.
Thermal printers require special coated papers - you can't use cheap commonly found paper. Cheaper labels have had a history in the past of fading over time when exposed to sunlight over time due to them not having UV protection. These consumer level labels also typically do not have that strong of adhesive on the back and can be pealed off certain surfaces. You should test a sample of printed labels to see how well they stick on boxes, poly mailers and bubble mailers.
In some instances these labels can be pealed off at a package sorting facility. This happens when by chance a corner or edge of another package impacts the corner of a label and partially bends it up and exposes the adhesive underneath. Another package temporary attaches to this exposed adhesive and tugs on it a little more. This process may repeat until the label is completely removed from your package. There is more of a chance of this happening on poly mailer and bubble mailers as they can be more easily deformed. You might reinforce these labels with some clear tape.
The large thermal labels that were printed at two bulk goods warehouses I worked at on the other hand had industrial adhesive. They could only be scrapped off metal totes in pieces or torn off in small pieces from Gaylord style totes. They also had UV protection as they might sit in the warehouse for some time. The Zebra printers that produced these labels; however, cost over $2,000 and the labels cost a lot more than consumer level labels. These printers also came with 3-ring binder manual for feeding the rolls back through when they ran out as it was rather complicated process.
I am still using a monotone laser printer from 2001 to print labels. It has a separate drum and toner cartridge. I've only replaced the drum once and that was last year when I accidentally broke off a small part. The high capacity toner cartridges are changed every few years. Almost all the paper I use is leftover from larger lots of items I purchased at auction to it cost almost nothing. I am currently working on four tubs of plain notepad paper in various sizes from auction lots. If I ever get through that I have at least 40 reams of paper to use up. I also use other paper to print labels on such as some product inserts with printing on one side - I simply turn them over.
Monotone laser labels printed on paper and taped to the box. Since you should be adding some tape to any label you apply as a precaution I thought I'd might as well stick with the plain paper labels. I also can print other documents on the laser printer as well as on various sizes of decals for internal use. I've yet to have a failed label in nearly 25 years.
