As a business person who ships freight, it is normal to ponder how to reduce shipping and trucking costs. Generally, when it comes to freight shipping and trucking, everything matters. From the method of shipping the freight to the packaging and destinations, tweaking these factors can help you save money on shipment costs. 

Usually, most people work more on analyzing their operations, streamlining them, being more efficient and finally reducing costs. However, when it comes to shipping costs, many make the mistake of assuming that it involves fixed costs that do not change. Most people follow this status quo, thus losing out on potential savings.

Luckily, there are many ingenious ways to reduce shipping and trucking costs. Most of them are rarely explored and are as simple as conducting freight pickups during off-peak hours or days of the week. In this blog, we’ll discuss various ways to reduce shipping and trucking costs. Get more for less today!

How to Reduce Shipping and Trucking Costs

Freight costs are an essential part of general expenses for every company that delivers goods. This is why choosing the best mode of transportation for your company is significant for boosting your profit potential and margin. 

Also, understanding how cargo moves through the supply chain and enhancing supply-chain visibility will all help you to save money. Here are a few proven methods on how to optimize transportation costs and save freight costs:

Ensure to Augment Your Freight

The more load you have in an ocean container, the less you pay for them. For FTL shipping, every ocean carrier charges per-container from one point to another. So, once you pay for the container, everything in there has been paid for without stress. With this type of shipping, ensuring you maximize the available space in your container is essential.

Also, there is a small difference between the ocean freight cost for 20″ and 40”/40HQ. This means using a 40HQ container rather than a 20″ container one can be a big saving. This is because you can easily double the product you are loading with just a small cost difference.

The four (4) universal container sizes used for ocean transportation are 20″, 40″, 40HQ, and 45HQ. Below is the general estimated cubic meter (CBM) you can fit into a container:

• 20” will contain 27 CBM,

• 40” will contain 57 CBM,

• 40HQ will contain 67 CBM, and
• 45HQ will contain78 CBM.

Evaluate Your Means of Transportation and Choose the Right Method

Don’t be afraid of using a different mix of trucking services if necessary. Usually, the combinations of rail, ocean, and air transportation can be used together to reduce transportation costs, time, and also logistics costs. 

Although international transportation can be a difficult mode of shipping, it can also be a simple way of moving cargo from one point to another. Ultimately choosing the most cost-efficient and timely mode of transportation is vital to help you reduce the freight shipping and trucking costs. 

The most universal methods of freight transportation are ocean, air, rail, and trucking. You can discuss these options with your logistics partner to ensure you’re shipping your cargo at the most minimal cost possible.

For instance, here at All Freight Shipping, we offer a variety of freight shipping and trucking services to the following locations:

• Vancouver to Toronto
• Montreal to Toronto
• Calgary to Toronto
• Edmonton to Toronto
• New York To Toronto
• California to Toronto
• Dallas to Toronto
• Chicago to Toronto
• New Jersey to Toronto

Always Accept Consolidation Services

This is essential if you are buying small product quantities from different suppliers. Also, if your suppliers/customers don’t have enough orders to fill a container, you can consider consolidating your cargo with others. At every origin port, logistics providers can offer a consolidation service where they can combine various suppliers’ products into a full container load. 

This way, you can avoid shipping less than a truckload (LTL), and can maximize your container load. Sometimes, it is better to ask one of your suppliers to send the goods to a different location. This way, you can ship to where you have the most cargo, and consolidate with the. Furthermore, while paying an extra penny for trucking costs, you can save big on ocean costs by avoiding FTL loads. Also, you can always ask your forwarder for guidance on freight cost calculations.

Always Ship More, Less Frequently

Another way you can easily optimize transportation costs, reduce logistics expenses and save on freight costs is by shipping more but less often. By encouraging your customers to buy in bulk, or to place larger orders, you can easily reduce freight costs. 

Generally, shipping tens of pallets in one day is more efficient than shipping 2 pallets every 2 days. You can also try adding different benefits like free shipping on orders. For instance, you can give a discount on orders that are over a fixed amount of dollars and also offer additional benefits to encourage buying in bulk. This way, you can optimize your transportation costs. If you’re working with retailers, the same concept is well applicable. Give your customers extra attractive benefits for orders in bulk to save on overall costs. This will help you run a more profitable business.

Identify Freight Weaknesses Using Data Entry

Recently introduced inventory management systems can help collect and monitor a significant amount of data. This data often covers most facets of a business’s inventory operations. Therefore, you can use the data to identify instances of poor shipping performance and thus, determine the potential cause.

Conclusion

Shipping your goods or products shouldn’t have to cost a fortune. Avoid falling into traps of “this is how we do it, or it has always been like this.” Instead, endeavour to find ways to reduce trucking costs and make your business more profitable overall. Choosing the right mode of transportation, shipping more but less frequently, and using consolidation services. These proven strategies can help you reduce shipping and trucking costs. All of these methods are simple implementations that can make a significant difference in terms of freight costs.

Also, the various methods above are proven innovative strategies explored by businesses across Canada and its environs. Ultimately, change isn’t always a bad thing, and saving money in the process is another added advantage. Here at All Freight Shipping, we offer discount pricing and varied shipping options that can help you reduce overall pricing. Send us a message or call+1866 200 9989 to speak with a friendly representative today!