3 Tips For Saving Money On Freight Shipping

The cost of freight shipping can be a significant expense, especially for small and medium sized businesses that do not qualify for the same volume discounts as many large distributors. While freight shipping may be a necessary expense for these business owners, there are ways to reduce the cost of these services.

Ship Larger, Less Frequent Shipments

The more freight your company has to ship, the lower rate you will get per lb. Consequently, choosing to ship larger, less frequent shipments can help you to save a significant amount of money over time. For instance, rather than offering daily shipments that average 100 lbs each, consider offering your customers guaranteed shipment within 72 hours. This will allow you to send out two 300 lb shipments during the course of a six day work week, rather than paying for six separate, smaller shipments.

Always Avoid Residential Deliveries When Possible

Most freight shipping companies will charge a significant fee for delivering your freight to a residential address. The reason for this is that residential streets can often be difficult for large freight trucks to navigate, and will therefore put drivers at a higher risk for being involved in an accident.

In order to avoid these fees, consider shipping your freight to a local warehouse or airport terminal where it can be picked up by an employee or local delivery service. While there can be additional costs associated with the use of a secondary delivery service, these costs will often be lower than the fees charged by large freight companies for residential deliveries.

Double Check Weight And Packaging To Avoid Additional Fees

Each time your company ships freight, this freight will be carefully inspected by the shipping company in order to verify that it is packaged correctly for transport, and that the weight of the freight matches the weight that was provided for the original quote. If your freight is heavier than initially reported, or needs to be repackaged to ensure safe delivery, you will be charged an additional fee by the shipping company.

As with most services, you will end up paying far more when having the shipping company repackage your freight than you would pay to do this job correctly the first time around. Therefore, it is important that you always take the time to carefully recheck these features of each shipment before the shipment is picked up by the freight company like World Cargo International Services.