Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/655792
22 FEDA News & Views vigilant about getting paid for the time it takes to deliver," says Walsh. "They can monitor how long the driver spends delivering to a customer down to the minute. Whereas in years past, some of that stuff just kind of went under the rug. The driver would do what they had to do to deliver and no one would be billed." In response, more dealers are edu- cating the customer on the front end to avoid costly surprises, according to Brink. "From what we're seeing, they're defi nitely a lot more proactive," he says. "If one of those services is needed, they know how much to charge the custom- er and they're billing it into the quote. The last thing you want is to quote something at $150 and the freight bill comes in at $210. " Be Carrier-Friendly There are a number of ways to dis- qualify your business as a shipper of choice—consistently being fl agged for inaccuracies on the B/L, amassing freight claims, using inferior packaging, which typically leads to more freight claims. Worst case scenario for any of these offenses is a hike in pricing or an out- right refusal from carriers to pick up your freight. "Bottom line," says Brink, "it's a carriers market and they're looking to purge unprofi table business. So these days it's all about how to make yourself m o r e a p p e a l - ing to the c a r r i e r b e c a u s e there is always going to be more freight." Simple ways to ingratiate your- self include altering your pick-up or delivery sched- ule, corralling claims ratios, and upgrading packaging from low-grade card- boards to shrink wrap. "A lot of carriers, like UPS Freight, won't even handle it unless it's been shrink wrapped," says Walsh. "They are becom- ing very granular and zeroing in on customers who have freight claims that are above normal, so when you start seeing products that tend to have higher claims ratios, or the number of claims add up to more than a few percent, it raises eyebrows. That's been the focus I've been working on with several big shippers, well-known ones. They've realized that it costs less to upgrade the packaging than to incur signifi cant rate increases." An Added Bonus on Cost Cutting One of the most effective cost-cutting strategies is to ship in weight quantities, says Walsh. The short of it is the more you ship the more you save—but to take advantage of the savings, you have to be aware of the internal triggers. In freight there is always going to be more freight." Simple ways to ingratiate your- self include altering your pick-up or delivery sched- ule, corralling claims ratios, and upgrading packaging from low-grade card- zeroing in on customers who have freight claims that are above normal, so when you start seeing products that tend to have higher claims ratios, or the A Win-Win for the Carrier When you don't describe your freight properly, especially an item that involves a density category, the carrier has every right to charge you the highest class. They call it a "winning inspection." Cost of Freight continued terms, t h e y 're c a l l e d w e i g h t b r e a k s . There are six different weight thresh- olds, 0-499 pounds, 500-999 pounds, 1,000-1,999 pounds, 2,000-4,999 pounds, 5,000-9,999 pounds and 10,000- 20,000 pounds. "Let's say your rate per hundred is $20 dollars and you're shipping three hun- dred pounds," says Walsh. "If you could get up to around 500 pounds, there's a weight break, but to trigger it you can ship as low as four hundred pounds or 450. Getting close to that 500-pound weight break, automatically gives you an 18 percent rate reduction. It's shipping 101 but I think people forget about it." Brink agrees. "What a lot of dealers can and should do is cross sell to reach those breaks," he says. "If someone buys an oven range, suggest the hood and offer a discount for an added incen- tive. You'll make a few bucks by selling more things and also reduce your overall freight expenditure." m o r e a p p e a l - ing to the c a r r i e r b e c a u s e terms, t h e y 're c a l l e d w e i g h t b r e a k s . Passing Inspection LTL carriers inspect one out of every six shipments that pass through their terminals, opposed to one out of every 14 shipments a few years ago. They have dedicated departments at each terminal whose sole purpose is to check the description on the bill of lading, match it up with the actual commodity that was shipped and perform a thorough inspection that includes weighing the shipment and calculating footage and density. Great Cheat Sheet For some of the most commonly-shipped food equipment items, check out the 2016 FEDA Freight Directory at feda.com