Strategies to Reduce Shipping Costs

Do you hear that? It’s your bottom line. Begging for mercy. This should help. 10 Tips to Save on Shipping in 2024 👇 ----- 1. Conduct a parcel RFP Haven’t bid your parcel business recently? [you’re not alone] 2020-2022 was a rough pricing environment. But it’s now a shipper’s market. Early 2024 is a great time to bid your #business. 2. Re-negotiate carrier contracts Scenarios where this makes sense: ➡️ discounts/contract terms don’t align with package characteristics ➡️ spend (carrier revenue) has “outgrown” the agreement [maxed out revenue-based incentives] ➡️ Carrier agreements will expire within 6-9 months 3. Source alternative carriers In addition to cost savings, two considerations are: ➡️ delivery reliability and transit time ➡️ existing revenue-based discounts 4. Audit parcel invoices, analyze parcel data Invoice audit savings can be up to 1%-2%. The greater value may be in leveraging parcel data. To uncover more savings opportunities and inform decisions. There are many quality providers in this space. 5. Reduce surcharge spend Changing how you ship can reduce surcharge spend. [in addition to negotiating discounts] 2 examples: ➡️ Shifting volume from residential to commercial [see tip 10] ➡️ Use carriers with no DAS [USPS, Pitney Bowes, DHL eCommerce] 6. Shift volume to deferred services Examples include: -Air/Express to Ground -Ground to postal workshare 7. Enable rate shopping, carrier service optimization A multicarrier shipping solution can help optimize shipping spend. By selecting the least-cost service that meets transit requirements. Again, there are many provider options here. Here’s your playbook: -start exploring now -select a provider in Q1 -implement in Q2 8. Consolidate package volume Commercial: Ship less frequently, leverage hundredweight pricing. Residential: Reduce split shipments by prioritizing “ship complete” in order sourcing logic. 9. Optimize packaging, containerization Inefficient packaging = higher billed weight, more surcharges Find ways to: -improve container size selection [reduce shipping “air”] -reduce package dimensions [convert cartons to polybags] 10. Enable order pickup options Orders picked up at stores = less packages shipped [obvious, I know] Another option is to offer alternate pickup points. This can supplement store pickup. [in-store, curbside] No stores? Use pickup points. [Via. Delivery offers UPS and FedEx options] Delivering to a commercial location = no residential surcharge ----- Cost management is a top priority in 2024. Shipping can be a great source of savings. Get started now. #shipping #ecommmerce #retailing

Good morning my LI Friends. The Crate and Freight business is primarily focused on protecting goods during transit but did you know that the crating process decreases your shipping costs? When shipping LTL and using class rating to ship your items, like this data cabinet, wood crating helps in determining and improving its “transportability” One of the largest determining factors in NMFC classification is Density. The wood of the crate adds to the weight of the shipped item, many times improving the density and reducing the class rating of the shipment. These data cabinets are big in size but the aluminum metal framing make them relatively light, for their size, add in the factor that these cabinets are a high value item, makes them a high class item in the NMFC Class system which means you are paying the carrier more in freight cost. Adding the wood crate allowed this particular shipment to reduce a full 2 classes down reducing the overall shipping bill. It’s true the full wood crating option is not cheap, but if you want to ship with the best protection available for your item, especially in the LTL world, shipping 1 to 6 crates, you can mitigate some of the costs of shipping by crating it. You read that right! Increasing the weight of your shipment decreases the cost. (By improving the density metric in the class system) Then there are other factors like, deficit rating that can again come into play on certain LTL tariffs to find another way to reduce your overall shipping expense. I’m surprised at how many shippers don’t understand these basic LTL concepts. After a little education and showing them actual numbers they start to understand the importance crating, rather than just palletizing a product, plays in freight transportation. Our clients find the extra expense of crating their products provides the right balance of added protection and decreased freight expenses. At Gateway Crate and Freight we get the Balance Right. Our clients love the way we ship! Everyone have a great day. #PapaFreight #lsp #logistics #crating #packing #shipping #trucking #freight #ltl

Freight Audit...Freight Audit and Pay....Business Intelligence.... There are many excellent providers in the marketplace that gather information to help provide insight into your business, and insure that for the elements that the carriers bill for, that the billing is correct, based on the contract in place. BUT......do they help you make "changes" that improve your profitability or service to the customers? By "changes", I mean do they help you look upstream to see what can be done to ultimately impact the $$$ charged on the bill, and the TNT performance being realized........and as a shipper, if you are not challenging your provider to do this, you are missing real opportunities. >>> This is the easy one.......your provider should be looking at your lanes, your shipment profile, and your distribution among your carriers, and benchmarking against other shippers that they provide services to. If there is / are a carrier(s) that you are not utilizing that could reduce cost and/or improve service, they should be bringing this forward. >>> Another easy one.....is your provider helping you maximize your packaging to reduce cost? It's a simple utilization review (how much air is being shipped) and then a modeling exercise to simulate the use of different sized boxes, that become "right-sized" for your shipment profile. Utilizing a new set of "right-sized" boxes, or a box on demand solution, a reduction in air results in less boxes being shipped (assume cartons per order goes from 1.4 to 1.35 - and if you ship 2M orders per year, that is a reduction of 100,000 cartons per year...you get savings in transportation cost, dunnage cost, cardboard cost (maybe you spend a few pennies of the savings for stronger boxes), and warehouse labor (your DC/FC manager loves these fixes). There arer numerous other ways to insure that you get the best possible service and results from the use of your provide - you just need to know what to ask for. If you don't have a provider, and you are Chief Cook and Bottle Washer at your organization for all things transportation, than just reach out...we are happy to help. Next up.......pre and post shipment accessorials.