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freight consolidation

What Are the Shipping Benefits of Freight Consolidation?

VWB Blog 2 years ago 12

There is no shortage of business expenses when you own your own company. Between paying for your workspace, your employees, and other overhead, the last thing you want to worry about is how much you pay for shipping freight. Thankfully, the shipping industry handles freight in a variety of different ways.

One of the best ways for smaller businesses to take advantage of shipping freight is through freight consolidation. If you’ve never heard of it, you might be wondering how it can benefit your business. Read on to learn all about it!

What is Freight Consolidation?

Typically, when you think of shipping via freight, you think of filling an entire shipping container with your products and sending it off to its destination. Problems arise, however, when you don’t have enough product to fill an entire shipping container. That’s where freight consolidation comes in.

In the logistics industry, freight consolidation refers to combining shipments from several different shippers into one shipping container. The shipments originate from the same area and go to the same general area. Once they reach their destination, they’re shipped separately to their final destination.

Save Big on Your Shipping Costs

The biggest reason companies choose to ship via consolidated freight is because of the amount of money they stand to save by doing it. This is because you’re sharing the cost of shipping with other businesses instead of bearing the brunt of the cost of the entire shipping container yourself.

You can save even more money by using your space in the shipping container wisely and working with other companies who ship to the same places you do. On top of that, you don’t have to pay for storage sites, fleets of vehicles, or inventory management facilities because you won’t be shipping things yourself.

Control the Shipping Process

Consolidated freight gives you far more control over the entirety of the shipping process. You can control everything from your production schedules to your due dates. Either you or your logistics partner can manage the distribution chain, too!

Shipping companies that want to take their business to the next level can do so through the use of websites. Services like EZ Freight Broker Trucking Websites help freight shipping companies connect with businesses that need things shipped. Ultimately, these websites make the process much easier.

Risk Reduction

There’s probably not a person on earth who hasn’t received a package with a broken item inside of it. It’s the reality that comes with shipping items from one point to another. That doesn’t mean that you can’t take steps to help mitigate the risks associated with shipping, however.

Freight consolidation is actually a fantastic way to help ensure that your products stay as safe as possible in transit. Experienced shippers know how to properly handle even the most delicate of freight. With fewer stops and transfers, you don’t have to worry as much about your products getting damaged through improper handling, either.

Develop a Strong Relationship with Your Shipping Company

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a reliable shipping company that knows how to meet your every need? Well, when it comes to freight consolidation, you can have that.

Continued interactions with a single freight shipping company help you develop a solid relationship with your shipper. This means better care and better rates in the future. This means better results each time you ship your product.

As an added bonus, you’ll also develop relationships with the other local businesses that use freight consolidation, too!

Faster Shipping Speeds

Think about trying to move during the summer. You know that you need to book your moving truck early because it’s the busy season, and the schedule is likely getting booked well in advance. If you don’t get your goal date, you’ll have to wait for the next available date to move.

The same is true for freight that isn’t consolidated. Instead of packing up a shipping container with products from several different businesses and sending it on its way, you have to wait for the next truck and container to come available. The same is not true for freight consolidation.

Instead of waiting for the next available truck, you pack up your part of the container, and the truck goes as soon as it’s full.

Happier Customers

Faster shipping speeds don’t just benefit you as a business and the distributors to whom you ship. It also means that less time elapses between production and your product getting into the hand of customers. In the long run, this means that your customers are happier with your business and more likely to come back and recommend it to their friends and associates.

Increased Flexibility

Everyone would love to run their business on a regular schedule. Create a product and ship it out when it’s ready to go. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible, especially in times of increased demand.

Thankfully, freight consolidation offers business owners more flexibility in schedules when and where they’d like to ship their products. If you’ve had a run on the demand for a particular product, you can safely drum up production, safe in the knowledge that it’ll get to consumers when you need it to get to them.

You can also make use of a freight storage facility when your freight reaches its destination, but there isn’t quick anyone there to distribute it, yet.

Is Freight Consolidation Right for You?

If you run a business that ships via freight, but doesn’t produce enough to fill an entire truckload, then freight consolidation is a fantastic solution. Not only does it save you a ton of money on shipping costs, but it also offers more flexibility and faster shipping times. All of that translates to happier customers and greater success in your business!

Speaking of running a successful business, are you looking for more awesome ways to grow your business? We can help you with that. Check out the rest of our blog for tons of tips that’ll help boost your business acumen.

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