Even though the freight rate is volatile, the impact of the freight rate on your business remains the same. Freight budgeting is extremely essential for logistics companies as well as supply chains. As freight rates fluctuate constantly, planning is undoubtedly a time-consuming task.
Many business owners don’t even know the proper definition of freight rates. Fright rate is known as the price at which the shipping containers are transported from one place to another. The freight rate is dependent on the transportation mode, the type of cargo, and the distance to reach the destination. However, many shipping services also use the dimensional weight to determine the freight rate. The dimensional weight includes both the volume and weight of the cargo. Here are the top 4 factors that affect the freight rates.
Speed and Flexibility
Due to the pandemic, the turnaround times of the delivery have been shortened to great levels. Overnight and same-day deliveries are considered as expectations. Therefore, flexibility regarding the deliveries has become tough. However, the impact of flexibility is massive on the supply chain of your business. While planning for deliveries, you need to optimize the travel routes so that you can reduce idle time. This way you can increase the number of deliveries to the specific location.
Contacting an experienced and professional freight forwarder such as the evergreen shipping line can help you achieve greater speed and flexibility. You need to identify the more efficient areas so that you can enhance the speed through route optimization. These factors are extremely effective at increasing the speed of delivery. Not to mention, you can also save money.
Density and Weight of the Shipments
Density and weight impact the class of the freight and ultimately the freight rates. Bigger packages have more density. Therefore, they will require more room for storage as well as transport. Whether you’re transporting your goods by sea, air, or land, the more manpower and room required for your container, the more you need to pay for it. To mitigate the rates, make sure you use low-weight and high-quality packaging. Additionally, don’t forget to consider the effectiveness of the shipper. Shippers that provide great customer service and transparency for their transportation partners will provide you with better rates for your shipping containers. As per CNBC, the freight rates are increasing.
Distance
This is one of the most important factors that affect freight rates. The longer the distance between the pick-up point and the delivery destination, the more expensive the freight rate will become. Keep in mind that freight costs are also dependent on the transportation move, geographical location, and the complexity of the transportation process. Experienced freight forwarding companies will help you develop great strategies to minimize the costs of travel. Chopping the number of deliveries to different locations, implementing fulfillment centers where you deliver the most, and holding the shipment until the truck arrives are some of the best ways to reduce the freight rates related to distance. This way you can easily maintain the transportation budget of your business.
Conclusion
Companies that sell physical goods are massively dependent upon transportation services to get their products to the market. This means that they need to partner with experienced and professional freight forwarding companies to succeed.