Hey Alexa, Take Me International: Why Businesses Need to Partner with Shipping Experts

Expanding your business globally is crucial for growth in today's interconnected world. However, international shipping can be confusing, especially if you're not a logistics pro. That's where Third-Party Logistics providers (3PLs) come to the rescue, making the process easier and more efficient. Let's break it down.

Understanding International Shipping Challenges

International shipping is like a puzzle with many pieces. Here are some basic challenges that businesses face when shipping goods across borders:

• Customs Rules: Each country has its own customs regulations. Understanding and following these rules is vital to avoid delays and fines.
• Costs Calculation: Determining shipping costs can be tricky due to currency exchange rates, fuel charges, and import/export taxes. Incorrect calculations can hurt your profits.
• Transportation Choices: You must decide how to transport your goods—by air, sea, road, or rail—and which carrier to use. These choices affect delivery times and costs.
• Paperwork: International shipping requires lots of paperwork, like bills of lading, certificates of origin, and export licenses. Mistakes or missing documents can cause delays and extra expenses.
• Tracking and Visibility: Keeping an eye on shipments can be challenging. However, consistent tracking is crucial to ensure goods arrive on time.

Why Businesses Need a 3PL Partner

Now, let's see how partnering with a 3PL can simplify international shipping for your business:

• International Logistics Experts: 3PLs are pros at international logistics. They know different countries' customs rules and can guide you through the process, reducing delays and fines.
• Cost Savings: 3PLs have connections with carriers and can negotiate better shipping rates. They also know the best routes to save on transportation costs.
• Risk Management: 3PLs help you avoid risks in international shipping. They're experienced in identifying potential problems and can create backup plans for unexpected issues.
• Paperwork Handling: 3PLs can take care of all the paperwork for you. They ensure everything is accurate and complete, minimizing customs delays and extra costs.
• Accurate Tracking: Many 3PLs offer tracking tools so you can monitor your shipments. This transparency improves your supply chain management and keeps your customers happy.

Furthermore, expanding your business globally can be profitable, but it comes with challenges. International shipping requires expertise and can be complex. Therefore, that's where 3PLs come in. Partnering with them lets you focus on your core business while experts handle the logistics. So, when you're ready to take your business worldwide, remember that a trusted 3PL partner can make international shipping much smoother, reliable, and affordable.

Unlocking Success in Parcel Shipping: The Midsize Business Guide

Parcel shipping may seem straightforward, but behind the scenes, it's a complex and competitive business. Midsize companies, in particular, face unique challenges that can result in higher costs, manual errors, and a lack of control over their shipping operations. However, as parcel shipping continues to grow, there are solutions to these problems that can help midsize businesses thrive in this demanding landscape.

The Rising Tide of Parcel Shipping

The United States is expected to see parcel volume reach a staggering 28 billion by 2028. The e-commerce boom shows no signs of slowing down, and increased costs accompany this surge in demand. Notably, the recent averted UPS strike means that FedEx and UPS will likely continue aggressive pricing strategies to secure their market share. So, what's a midsize shipping company to do?

Challenges Faced by Midsize Organizations

Let's dive into the critical challenges faced by midsize businesses and explore some potential solutions:

• Increasing Costs: Rising carrier rates and unexpected accessorial fees can significantly impact a company's bottom line. High shipping costs can lead to shopping cart abandonment and hinder business growth.
• Human Error: Manual tracking and management of parcel shipments are prone to errors. From improper tendering of shipments to miscalculations of dimensional weight, these manual processes can be costly and inefficient.
• Duopoly Control: The UPS and FedEx duopoly dominates the market, making it difficult for midsize organizations to negotiate better rates or gain visibility into pricing alternatives. Plus, these carriers need to notify shippers when refunds are due readily.

The Solution: Partner with a 3PL

The solution to these challenges lies in partnering with a third-party logistics (3PL) provider specializing in parcel shipping. Here's how they can help:

• Cost Savings: 3PLs can leverage their expertise and technology to negotiate better rates, optimize shipping routes, and reduce accessorial fees. This frees up capital for core business activities.
• Expertise and Technology: Parcel shipping is a complex field, and 3PLs are experts. They constantly update their processes and technologies to stay competitive, providing clients with cutting-edge tools and industry knowledge.
• Data Insights: With access to comprehensive data and data scientists to analyze it, 3PLs help midsize companies gain a deeper understanding of their shipping costs, allowing for data-driven decision-making.
• Improved Customer Satisfaction: Outsourcing logistics can lead to faster and more reliable deliveries, fewer errors, and higher customer satisfaction, giving your business a competitive edge.

Tailoring the Solution to Your Needs

Logistics outsourcing isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Companies should carefully assess their unique needs before partnering with a 3PL. However, when timed and executed correctly, logistics outsourcing offers scalability, cost savings, access to expertise and technology, improved customer satisfaction, risk mitigation, and a sharper focus on core competencies.

Final Thoughts

In today's rapidly evolving supply chain environment, optimizing your parcel shipping strategies is essential for staying ahead of the competition. If you want to reduce costs, gain a competitive edge, and thrive despite market turbulence, consider working with an outsourced parcel shipping 3PL. It's a smart move that can help your midsize business flourish in the dynamic world of parcel shipping.

Coronavirus has been a catalyst to the ecommerce market, as consumers increasingly prefer to stay safe at home instead of shopping in person. This quick change in behavior has led to intense strain for major parcel carriers.

Last Friday, UPS announced one method they’re taking to keep up with the demand: additional fees over the holiday season. These new surcharges could reach three dollars a package for ground shipments and four dollars for air.

UPS said these additional fees will apply from November to January but will only apply to customers who ship more than 25,000 packages a week. The surcharges increase as customers send 110%, 200% and 300% more shipments than their average weekly shipping volume in February.

Notably, these fees are significantly higher than the last time UPS instituted additional fees during a peak holiday season, in 2018. Surcharges then reached up to 28 cents on ground shipments and up to 99 cents for air shipments.

According to an internal document circulated before the surcharges were disclosed, UPS informed its sales team that these fees would be used to offset higher costs to hire new workers and to secure additional shipping capacity.

The document explained, “These surcharges help protect our network and ensure UPS is compensated appropriately for additional costs incurred to maintain our high-quality service.”

While shipping consultants predicted some increase in holiday shipping fees, the steep amount was a surprise to all. John Haber, CEO of the supply chain consultant Spend Management Experts Inc, described the fees as “devastating to retailers” and that “it’s getting to a point where I’m starting to consider it gouging.”

One way to adjust to the new fee schedule is to change operations behavior. According to the UPS internal document, they plan to recommend that their customers shift promotions during the holiday season to reduce volume spikes during the busiest times such as around Thanksgiving, and entice shoppers to pick up orders in stores or to have packages delivered to access points like local businesses.

The internal document goes on, “These strategies help UPS decrease disruptions to our network, maintain a steadier stream of volume throughout peak season and may alleviate financial effects of the surcharges for our customers.”

Times like these are when it pays to have an intermediary between your ecommerce business and the giant carriers. Contact us today to save money on your shipping, especially as the holiday season approaches.

Now five months into the pandemic, and with no end in sight, it’s a good time for small parcel shippers to re-evaluate their shipping strategy. The current way one ships, such as with their preferred carrier or volume discount, may no longer be optimal in the COVID-era.

If you haven’t already, there’s no better time than now to take a few hours or days to run analyses to see how your business has changed. Many of our customers report having seen shifting trends in what and where they are shipping. If you don’t adapt to these shifting trends, you could be leaving money on the table.

After gathering your data from before and during the pandemic, there are two main trends to look for. The first is geography: has there been a shift as to where you are shipping? Second, how have the weight and size of your shipments changed?

Try to evaluate where your business has lost and gained in order to optimize shipping moving forward. For example, if you see in your data that your business has seen a shift to heavier parcels, it might make sense to invest in more flat-rate packaging, which can be better for heavy parcels.

Another example could be the discovery that you are shipping more internationally than you were before. Depending on your volume, you may be entitled to international volume discounts from your carrier.

In any case, by having a complete and thorough understanding of your new needs, you will be able to negotiate better deals when working with carriers, or simply just make optimal decisions in your packaging purchases.

The specific recommendations will depend entirely on the trends you find in your data. After running your analysis, please do not hesitate to reach out to us to see if we can assist in finding you a cost-saving shipping strategy moving forward.

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In the current economic environment, finding ways to cut costs down is more important than ever. One area where many businesses could save is when shipping. This article lists three simple factors to consider if you want to reduce shipping costs.

#1 Carrier Packaging vs Your Own Packaging

To begin, it’s important to know the major shipping carriers. In this piece, we will refer to the big four; UPS, DHL, and FedEx and the USPS.

The first way to start saving money on shipping is through the strategic use of carrier packaging. When you’re shipping a package, you can always use a box or envelope you have at home or work to ship. But, by using the packaging of your carrier, savings are possible.

Although this is a case-by-case basis, more often than not, by buying your supplies from your carrier’s website or brick-and-mortar, you will save more on the shipping than the cost of the packaging. This is a simple trick to save a few dollars, which can add up if you are shipping in high volume.

#2 Flat Rate Shipping

One major factor into how carrier’s price your shipments is by their weight. If you are shipping relatively heavy items, one way to save would be to look into flat-rate shipping options.

Flat-rate shipping means that you pay a fixed amount for the packaging, as opposed to paying by the size and weight of your item to be shipped. This saves you money in three ways.

First, for very dense but small items, you will not have to pay for that extra weight, beyond the flat-rate cost. Second, you will not have to weigh or measure your packages, so long as you’re sure it doesn’t exceed the maximum weights. Finally, by using flat-rate shipping, you will not have to worry about in-transit surcharges, which can really add-up.

All four carriers have a version of flat-rate shipping, and while it’s usually cheaper for heavier items, once again, it depends on the specific parcel, so this is not an absolute rule.

#3 Dimensional Weight

Besides weight, the next two biggest inputs to calculate a carrier’s shipping cost is size and distance shipped. But, a larger package doesn’t have to cost more.

Something that is noteworthy to newcomers in shipping is the concept of the “dimensional weight” of a parcel. This is a calculated figure, which is actually not related to the weight of the parcel at all. The dimensional weight of a parcel is defined by its height times width times height divided by 139. So, its volume over 139.

It’s puzzling at first, but quickly becomes clear why it exists. If shipments were purely based on weight, there would be no incentive to ship in small packages. This would be bad for carriers, as their trucks would be filled by unnecessarily large packages, making it so they have to ship fewer parcels each trip, costing them money.

So, by having dimensional weight, it acts as a check against big packages. If you ship too large of a package, such that the dimensional weight is greater than the actual weight, you will be charged as if your parcel actually weighed its dimensional weight.

Luckily, by shipping with large logistics companies, like us, you can have access to better dimensional weight dividers. So, instead of dividing the volume of your parcel by 139, you could divide it by 200, for example. Therefore, your dimensional weight will be lower (because it was divided by a larger number), and your package can ship for less!

Contact us today if you want to have better rates, or to learn how easy it can be to reduce your transportation costs. Happy Shipping!

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If you’re a business owner who ships your product, there is an important update to be aware of. In normal times, FedEx and UPS offer money-back service guarantees. This guarantee allows you to claim a refund in case a parcel arrives later than the posted timeframe.

However, the shock of COVID-19 has disrupted the supply lines for FedEx and UPS, and in March, both companies announced the suspension of their money-back guarantee programs.

FedEx released a statement on March 23rd stating, “The impact of COVID-19 is causing local, state, and national governments around the world to issue work and travel restrictions on a daily basis which are impacting our ability to meet our high standards of service.”

Similarly, a day later, UPS released the following message, “As the effects of the Coronavirus impact our infrastructure, we will continue to seek guidance from local, state, and national government entities to ensure that we fully align with their regulations while continuing to meet the service levels you have come to expect.”

Both companies proceeded to describe how they will be monitoring the situation, and when the opportunity arises, they expect to reinstate the policy. Until then, it’s important to take this risk into calculation when making shipping decisions.

We recommend allowing for more lead time for shipping because UPS and FedEx systems are full. If the package has to be there sooner, consider upgrading to a faster service level.

Notably, as of July 23rd, neither company has released a date for re-instatement of their guarantee. We will update this blog if this arises, but we recommend planning on its return in the immediate future.

Contact us today if you want to have better rates, or to learn how easy it can be to reduce your transportation costs. Happy Shipping!

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