Choosing the Best Parcel Shipping Options to Save You Money
Does your company regularly ship parcels? Perhaps you are shipping products, or it might be documents, brochures, or manuals in large volumes that have to travel in boxes. Either way, knowing all of your parcel shipping options will help you save money.
Whatever the case, it probably means you use parcel shipping to make sure your package arrives at its destination on time and in one piece. Parcel shipping is also a common choice for companies in the Pacific Northwest because of its affordability.
Except that, when it comes to saving money on business shipping, traditional parcel-shipping methods may not be as cost-effective as most people think.
How to Save Money With Parcel Shipping Options
Companies that require parcel shipping usually choose between UPS, USPS, and FedEx. The final decision depends on:
- What they’re sending
- Where they need to send it
- When it has to arrive
Of course, the truth is that many companies in the Pacific Northwest simply pick a carrier and then stick with it indefinitely.
Carriers are great about offering their clients software and web-based platforms for processing. What they fail to provide is an option for comparing prices across these three popular options. So, it’s generally simpler just to stay with the carrier a business has become accustomed to over the years. It might not lead to the best price, but at least it results in a predictable one.
Fortunately, there are multi-carrier platforms that make it effortless to conduct cost-cutting comparisons. Saving money on business shipping has never been easier.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Platforms
Carriers offer free systems to users because they don’t want the end user to shop rates, which makes the cost of these “free” systems very expensive. Despite the carrier offered custom discount, this is an expensive way to go.
Many things need to be considered when shipping a package to ensure cost efficiencies. More comes into play besides what a carrier charges to get the weight of the package to an existing address. For example, know the following items will aid in determining all of your parcel shipping options:
- Delivery time needed
- Is this going to a residential or business address
- Carrier Accessorial fees to be added on (this accounts for almost 20% of shipping costs when using UPS and Fed Ex)
Fortunately, Pitney Bowes Mailing Software SendPro and Send Suite solutions make it easy to process parcels and make the best decision on which carrier based on all the above criteria. Companies that use a multi-carrier platform that allows for these efficiencies typically lower their outbound parcel shipping costs 10-15%.
Saving money on business shipping doesn’t have to mean sacrificing deadlines or the quality of the carriers involved. It just means one simple switch to a multi-carrier platform and perhaps some devices to help improve your efficiency. To learn more about either, please contact us.