Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/655792
10 FEDA News & Views MANAGING THE COST OF FREIGHT N ote to shippers: There's no freight class for "restaurant equipment." Yet ReTrans Freight's Vice President of Sales Tim Walsh has grown accustomed to seeing E&S distributors toss about the catch-all on their bill of ladings. That's one of the places he routinely looks when he visits a prospect and, more times than not, he can count on fi nding an opportunity to lower costs crouching behind a vague description. "Often times they end up being billed for a class that's more costly than the correct description and it happens more than you think," says Walsh, which is a problem, particularly in a market with damage-prone, higher-cost commodi- ties. But for the carrier, it's a welcomed Ka-Ching. Blame the capacity crunch, low fuel costs, the driver shortage, etc. All of it is pushing the industry to become more aggressive in fl agging errors to recoup years of lost profi ts. "It used to be that carriers would just try to break even year to year and gener- ate some low, single-digit profi t margin," says Walsh. "Now the goal is double-digit margins—15, 17 and even 20 percent— and most carriers are reaching it. And the way they're getting it is by becoming much more sophisticated in how they sniff out errors—billing errors, and com- modity description errors." ReTrans Director of Client Solutions, Kevin Brink, spends a great deal of his time helping his customers dodge the scrutiny. Outside of the obvious—due diligence and accuracy, accuracy and more accuracy—shippers have to come to terms with the odds, says Brink. "Right now, the carrier has the advantage; they're in the driver's seat so there has to be a shift in thinking," he says. "It's not about 'how can I get the carrier to help me reduce my freight costs' because car- riers aren't interested in offering better prices right now. It's 'how do I avoid unexpected increases.'" The less attention you draw to your freight the better off you'll be, says ReTrans Freight's Tim Walsh and Kevin Brink. Follow their Lead on How to Shift the Focus. By Stacy Ward, Managing Editor fedastacy@verizon.net