Nicolas Telesca

When reviewing annual carrier contracts, many businesses see a nice 40% or 50% discount on base rates and assume their shipping budget is in great shape. On paper, everything looks like a win. You signed a contract with competitive discounts, your shipping volumes are steady, and your operations team is getting packages out the door on time. So, then the question is, why does the monthly bill always come in higher than expected? If you feel like your shipping spend keeps creeping upward...

Shipping costs are one of the hardest expenses for manufacturers to control because the biggest price increases rarely appear as obvious rate hikes. Instead, they surreptitiously hide inside oversized boxes, misclassified addresses, and complex carrier surcharges that get tacked onto every invoice. But this doesn’t mean in any way that you need to switch carriers or disrupt your delivery schedule to save money. Most of your potential savings come from understanding what UPS and FedEx are...

If you ship products for a manufacturing plant or distribution business, you know that the price on your carrier rate card is rarely the price you actually pay. While base shipping rates get most of the attention during contract talks, parcel surcharges (also called accessorial fees) often make up 20% to 40% of your total shipping bill. As carriers like UPS and FedEx introduce stricter package size rules, extra handling fees, and weekly fee adjustments, hidden costs can quickly eat into your...