Shipping Tip
What’s in a freight rate?
Have you ever heard “I can offer you a 90% discount off of carrier base rates for all of your shipments” or “I can save you 30% to 40% off of what you paid for freight last year?”
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Here are a few tips to give you insight into what’s really in a freight rate:
- Anybody can get a 50% discount from most carriers.
- A discount usually refers to a percentage off of carrier base rates.
- Liability coverage for your shipment is reflected in the discount rate, so be careful. It could be the difference of $5 vs. $25 per pound.
- Fuel surcharges can fluctuate weekly. If you have a new prospective partner conducting a rate comparison for you, make sure that the rate comparison is normalized with what the current fuel surcharge percentage is today.
- Accessorial charges are the add-ons! If you have special pick-up or delivery needs such as liftgate, delivery notification, or inside delivery you may have to pay additional fees – which can vary significantly from carrier to carrier.
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What’s in a freight rate?
Q: What are the benefits of receiving a volume quote if my shipment is more than 5,000lbs.?
A. Many times, volume quotes will give you a spot price that is better than your normal discounted rate. These spot prices will depend on how much volume a carrier has going in your particular lane on that day. These larger shipments are very desirable to most carriers, because they take up a lot of space in the trailer but require a lot less handling.
Q: When looking at a freight quote from a carrier or freight partner, how do I know if the liftgate charge is included?
A. Accessorial charges should be listed separately on a quote as an additional charge. If it’s not broken out or listed they probably didn’t include the charge.
What’s in a freight rate?
PartnerShip routinely saves us hundreds of dollars on individual freight shipments. This ends up being a huge annual cost saving especially considering freight is one of our bookstore’s biggest expenses. I’ve found PartnerShip to be easy to use and the level of service we get from our rep is unparalleled. We were walked through the PartnerShip website and now our receiving manager can easily price out freight vendors, set up shipments, and track those shipments in one easy place. PartnerShip is what its name implies: a true partner to the college store.
Abbie Shellist
UT Bookstore
What’s in a freight rate?
Have you ever heard “I can offer you a 90% discount off of carrier base rates for all of your shipments” or “I can save you 30% to 40% off of what you paid for freight last year?”
Here are a few tips to give you insight into what’s really in a freight rate...MORE