Running your own business is one of the most rewarding and satisfying things you can do. However, there a huge amount of obstacles and challenges you’ll need to overcome if you hope to succeed.
One of the hardest things to work out as a business owner is freight shipping. If you’re considering shipping large amounts of product (or just large products) out at once, what’s the best way to approach the task?
If you’re not sure how to get started with freight shipping, read on. We’ll walk you through some of the most frequently asked questions and their corresponding answers.
How Are Shipping Rates Determined?
As a business owner, let’s face it: you care about the bottom line. You don’t have another choice. As such, your embracing of freight shipping is dependent on how much it could save you at the end of the day.
However, there’s no quick and simple way to determine what your freight shopping cost might be. Freight shipping mostly revolves on truck shipping, which means given prices might fluctuate based on the market.
Times where gas is more expensive, for example, will be more expensive for freight shipping as well.
Your final shipping cost will depend on a number of factors, including mode of transportation, dimensions, weight, and origin and destination. It will also depend if you want freight insurance for your shipment.
All of these factors contribute to your final cost, so it’s hard to make an estimate without knowing the particulars.
Less-Than-Truckload Shipments
One way you can save money is by pursuing an LTL, or less-than-truckload shipment. This is where your shipment doesn’t require the full space of a truck, which means your shipment can be combined with others in the same vehicle.
As you might imagine, this helps split the costs between multiple customers. It can help to keep your bottom line much lower.
Often, LTL rates are pre-established, which means you’ll have an easier time budgeting and planning for your shipping costs. It’s certainly the more cost-effective option.
However, there are reasons to consider truckload shipping. The costs will be higher, but if you have a huge quantity of product to ship, you might have no other choice. In addition, truckload shipping usually comes with the ability to control temperature, place things in fridges, and so forth.
If you have products that need specialized conditions when being shipped, truckload shipping will be the way to go.
What Is a Bill of Landing?
When you ship freight, a slip of paper known as a bill of landing often goes along with your shipment. This paper outlines the shipment’s journey and serves as a receipt between the carrier and the shipper.
As a business owner, you must prepare a bill of landing to provide to a shipper prior to pick-up. They likely won’t take your freight shipment without one.
Freight Shipping Basics for Business Owners
If you’re thinking about embracing freight shipping for your business, it’s important to know what you’re getting into. The above information can help.
Need more business tips and tricks? Keep scrolling our blog for more.
You must be logged in to post a comment.