1. Consolidate multiple freight shipments

Many customers don’t realize that by bundling freight shipments this is an easy way to save money.  For each hundred lbs of freight, rates become lower and lower.  For example, by combining two 200 lb shipments into one 400 lb shipment, you can significantly lower shipping costs.  This will take some coordinating and planning, but when applied can be a great freight saving tactic.

2. Ship freight to a business location or pick up from the airport rather than shipping freight to a residential location

Freight carriers charge more to deliver to a residential location compared to a business location.  This is because residential locations typically involve harder to navigate streets and are often more difficult to find than business located in commercial areas.   Remember, even if you run a business out of your residence, the freight carrier will still consider that a “residential delivery” and charge the hefty residential delivery fees on that shipment. If a business location is not a possibility, freight carriers deliver to airport terminals and you can pick up freight shipments there if the weight is low enough to transport with your vehicle.

3. Make sure weight and freight class are accurate on the initial Bill of Lading

Once freight shipments are picked up by the driver, they are then transported to the carrier’s nearest hub where they are reweighed to make sure the class on the Bill of Lading aligns with their company’s class standards.  If there are differences, the shipments will get reclassed and the costs are typically greater than the initial quote given to the customer.

4. Pack freight shipping correctly the first time

As with freight class, carriers will evaluate the packaging of freight and if they determine it needs to be repackaged, there is a surcharge added to the costs.  This is especially true when the goods being shipped are of delicate material or the freight carrier thinks there will be a high likelihood that the goods will get damaged or a claim will be made on the freight.  Use pallets or crates and you’ll be fine with the carriers on most shipments.

5. Plan freight shipping in advance

Obviously, it is more expensive to ship freight if shipments need to be delivered to a location in a short period of time.  To avoid this, arrange for shipments to be picked up days in advance.  This will not only save you money, but ensure on time delivery.

LTL stands for Less-Than-Truckload in which freight carriers collect shipments from numerous shippers, aggregating the freight into one full truckload.  Opposite to LTL, Full Truckload Shipping applies when one business’ freight occupies the entire truck.  For LTL freight shipping, a driver will make a certain amount of stops in order to fill the truck.  Typically, drivers have the same daily routes and it will be the same driver picking up shipments as long as shipper locations stay the same.  After the stops are made and the truck is full, the driver will take the trailer to a central hub where the freight is unloaded and classed according to freight class guidelines to make sure shipment details align with the description given to the driver.  Once reweighed and rated, the freight may go directly to the end destination or may pass multiple terminals before it arrives at its final location.

Because the shipper does not require a full truck to move the goods, LTL freight shipping is less expensive than doing full truckload moves.  Though less expensive, LTL moves typically have longer transit times due to the increased number of stops.   ShippingDiscounts.com is proud to partner with the most reputable LTL carriers like Conway, Saia, Yellow and over 30 other domestic and regional LTL freight companies.

We’re excited to announce that we just launched an instant freight quote feature.  Simply go to the Instant Freight Quote page and fill out the form and we’ll respond in a few minutes with a freight quote.   We get a lot of calls each day from people wanting to find out how much it will cost to move their freight.  Many times these customers are new to freight shipping and don’t have all the info they need for an accurate quote.  Our instant freight quote form tries to capture all that info in one place so that we can get you a quote and it also gives potential shippers an idea of what information they need to have ready to accurately get a quote.

We launched the freight quote feature only a day ago and we’ve already got customers filling out requests, so its looking like a success.  Of course you can always email in or call in with a quote request and we’ll be happy to take care of you that way as well.

Freight class or freight classification is one of the least understood freight shipping concepts to the general public.  Anytime we need to give an LTL freight quote to an existing customer or new customer, we need to get some basic information to give an accurate quote and one of the crucial pieces of information we need is the freight class. 

Freight companies determine the cost of your shipment by looking at the weight of the shipment relative to the shipment’s freight class, and then by the total distance that your shipment will travel.  At its core level the freight class is an indicator of how difficult or risky it is to move your shipment.  The more fragile, costly or less dense your item is, the bigger risk it is to the freight company to move it and hence they charge a higher amount for it.

The big freight carriers all adhere to the same standards when determining freight class.  The National Motor Freight Traffic Association determines the freight class that the carriers use for all items that a company could ship.  This association has organized all commodities into one of eighteen different classifications or freight classes.  The classes are numeric and start at class 50 for the most dense, cheap, and easy to ship items and ranges all the way up to class 500 for the hardest to ship and least dense items.

Let’s give an example.  We have one customer that commonly ships paper.  Yes, plain paper on pallets.  Think about this, its hard to ruin paper, its very dense and its easy to stack other commodities on top of it.  Paper is a class 50 item for shipping.  Just the other day, we got a quote for a new shipper.  He was trying to ship a crated insulator.  The type of insulator that goes on top of equipment in power plants.  His insultor was made of glass, clay, and was filled with liquid (oil).  The insulator was about 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide yet only weighed 150 pounds.  You guessed it, this was a class 500 shipment.

Most customers that are new to freight shipping really are unaware of how drastically changes in freight class can affect the price of their shipments.  This is why it is so critical to get the proper freight class before the shipment is processed.  We have another customer that ships transmissions and truck engines.  Both of these items are class 85.  A few weeks ago they shipped some truck hoods and marked them as class 85.  The quote on their shipment for class 85 in our transportation management system was $174.  Unfortunately for the shipper, truck hoods are much less dense and much more fragile than transmission or engines.  They are actually a class 300.  This changed the rate of the shipment from $174 all the way to $1080.  Yes, that is drastic, but that’s how the freight carriers price their freight.

If you are shipping a new item or are unsure of your freight class, please ask your freight forwarder to look it up for you.  We’re glad to do it and it saves money and heartache down the road.