If you’re a company who ships product, you need to educate yourself on the many shipping options out there to make sure you aren’t spending too much to move your inventory. One of these options is freight consolidation, and it might just be a superior alternative to your current methods.
Freight consolidation is a shipping service that can lower the total shipping cost as well as increase security. Freight consolidation is just one of the many names given to the service, including consolidation service, assembly service, and cargo consolidation, but no matter what a provider chooses to call it, the concept remains the same.
1. Significant Cost Savings
These savings occur because you will share the cost of shipping because you will typically combine your freight with that of other companies on the same truck. No longer will you pay for empty truck space that you don’t use because you aren’t shipping enough product to fill the container. You will only pay for the space your cargo takes up and nothing more.
By optimizing how you use space in the truck in partnerships with other companies who ship to the same region, your overall cost of shipping will be lowered. You’ll also save by getting bulk rates for your shipment should you be able to fill the entire truck yourself with multiple shipments of your own.
2. Safety Advantages
Things happen in shipping, it’s just a reality of doing business in which you ship products, but using freight consolidation can actually greatly reduce the risk involved. When you have systems in place and use an experienced shipper to handle your freight, your products will be in safer hands. And not only that — it will be in those hands less often, as there are fewer transfers involved in the shipment, meaning it won’t be handled as much as it would in other shipping methods.
Having your freight consolidated means that it will be on fewer trucks, making the odds smaller that one will be involved in an accident. This, in addition to the quality handling of an experienced provider, can give you peace of mind that your consolidated freight will safely reach its destination time after time.
3. Manage The Entire Shipping Process
Using freight consolidation also gives you more control over your due dates and production schedules. You will also be able to manage the entire distribution chain either on your own, or through a logistics partner. Having more control over your shipment will notify you sooner, so things aren’t sent to the wrong destination.
If your shipping partner discovers issues with your shipment, it will then fall to your provider to remedy the problem. This takes control of delivering your product out of your hands, and makes the process less efficient. By consolidating your shipment, you will implement quality control measures at a warehouse close to your retailers that will help reduce the chances your orders loose time or quality.
4. Increased Consistency
Once you learn the ordering patterns of your customers, you can build them into your consolidation plan. This allows you to have inventory readily available for your customers and not be scrambling to fill orders. Having a consistent shipping schedule will also help you to better take advantage of the savings that freight consolidation provides, as it will help ensure you can fill up the space you require.
When you increase the consistency of your supply chain, you will lessen the odds that you have a late shipment, missing product, or a shipment sent to the wrong retailer. It will streamline your overall shipping process, keeping your customers satisfied.
5. Improve Your Customer & Carrier Relationships
By shipping smarter and more efficiently, you will be able to build relationships with other companies, customers, and your carriers.
First, you can establish relationships with other businesses who rely upon LTL shipping. Once you learn that another company sends a similar product, or a similarly-sized load on the same schedule to a shared retailer, you can establish a shipping partnership that will help reduce the costs for both of you and build smarter loads.
As for your customers, they’ll appreciate that you’ve gotten together to come up with a more efficient shipping system to send them products, since they work with both companies. They’ll also appreciate the savings that freight consolidation provides.
6. Improved Flexibility & Time Management
Using freight consolidation will also improve the flexibility of your shipping needs and make your orders more timely. Freight consolidation often offers faster transit times, as well as reducing wait times for transporting small loads.
Having your freight stored at a consolidation facility will have your products ready to go when they are needed for shipment. This improves your timeline and inventory flexibility, which your customers will appreciate should they require a change. Changes in orders can throw things into a real mess with other shipping options, but having your freight consolidated will not hinder your ability to get your products to your customers on a short turnaround.
While freight consolidation might not be the best choice for every business, it has major advantages should it fit your company’s needs. Freight consolidation should help most businesses in some way, and can be utilized for smaller shipments to make the process cheaper and more efficient, as well as touching on each of the other benefits listed above.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Comments