Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/66147
Shipping continued could be throwing your freight calcula- tions off today and possibly hurting your chances of getting the sale, " he says. "Today,people can shop at five different places at once online and walk away with five different quotes in a relatively short period of time. This kind of con- venience makes it that much harder to compete. The Internet will weed you out where you're not competitive and keep you in themixwhere you are com- petitive. And even if you get the order, you may still end up losing money because your quote is too low [because it's based on thewrong freight class]. It's all about billing the customer at, or more, for what you're going to pay the carrier. If not, you're going to lose mar- gin. " To keep track of updates, and ulti- mately produce a more competitive quote, distributors can pay $100 to $150 (per update) to receive amend- ments handed down directly from the Commodity Classification Standards Board (CCSB), the body responsible for developing freight classifications,prod- uct descriptions, bill of lading formats, packing definitions and any other pro- visions contained in the NMFC.The one drawback, though, is that there's noway of knowing prior to payment if the updates will apply to your business, says Brink. "No controller or CFO I know is will- ing to blindly spend $150 for a classifi- cation on gaskets,particularly if they are using a third-party logistics firm that is a member [of the National Motor FreightTrafficAssociation] and can pass along the relevant information, "he says. "A lot of times our customerswill ask us to take a look at what they ship and get them the right classifications. To pro- duce a more accurate quote, you need the most up-to-date information from the NMFC. " Getting a Handle onAccessorials Also closely tied to accurate rates are accessorials, the additional service charges that often sabotage distributor profits on the back end mainly because of a lack of information on the front end, according to Brink, who often runs 1 2 FEDA News & Views across many of the unexpected charges when helping dealers with billing dis- crepancies. "People have been buying online for a decade now but the E&S industry has been lagging behind because of chal- lenges associated with how to ship the product, " he says."Traditional E&S deal- ers are used to fielding calls based on relationships and now they have a new segment based on user input.The prob- lem is they're not doing enough infor- mation gathering to make sure they have all of the facts. " And by the facts he means getting the customer to specify all of the extras required to make a delivery. That includes the standard lift gate fees,com- mercial/residential/limited access fees, inside delivery,white glove service and another additional charge that Brink says is often overlooked on many dis- tributor ecommerce sites—non-com- mercial (or non-residential). Most peo- ple look at accessorials as being either commercial or residential, he says,"but we're seeing a lotmore instanceswhere dealers are getting hurt on freight because customers are not identifying themselves as non-residential. Primarily because distributors or not making it clear to the customer what the term means. " According to the NMFC, non-com- mercial refers to businesses that are not open to the walk-in public during nor- mal business hours.The most common are private residences, apartment com- plexes, schools, churches, camps, dor- mitories, amusement parks, military bases and hotels. Other locations that traditionally do not have receiving docks also apply. To steer customers in the right direc- tion, Walsh suggests posting a list of clearly defined accessorial charges, in addition to a series of prompts that force themto divulgemore information about the nature of their business."On some of the trucking company web- sites, " he says, "customers are asked if they are a church, a dorm, a construc- tion site, etc.There are at least eight to 10 boxes and they have to check one before proceeding with an order. Every dealer ecommerce site should at least ask the customer if they need inside delivery and a lift gate and make an attempt to figure out if they are a non- commercial business. " But there are no guarantees when it comes to ensuring a smooth delivery. Hoping to avoid an added expense, some customers simply ignore freight suggestions,while othersmay not know what they need until they need it, says Head of Operations Craig Kass ofArrow Sheds, the Breese, Ill.-based, company that originally got its start making continued on page 14 members can take advantage of its Data Matching Service. "All they need to do is request the report and we will set them up on a case by case basis," says the Director of Account Development Kevin Brink. "Data matching is something that we offer to all of our customers and we can make it as simple or as complicated as they want it to be. Most of our larger FEDA Members are set up with our Vendor Routing Websites, which provide real-time, least-cost routing for inbound, outbound and drop shipments. Along with providing least-cost routing, the huge benefit of these websites and services are that they generate either a daily or weekly exceptions report, which automatically performs an internal audit between the quoted, expected amount of the shipment and the billed amount. Whenever the two amounts don't match up, the report shows where there are discrepancies and why they occurred, which could be because of unexpected accessorial charges or because a vendor misstat- ed the class or weight on the original bill of lading, etc." For more information, call Newgistics Tim Walsh at 908-879-2940. Interested in Newgistics' Data Matching Service? Through Newgistics Freight Management Discount Program, FEDA