Fighting Accessorials & Surcharges Despite Low Volumes

As we move toward the end of 2011, many shippers are marveling that their 2011 shuipping costs were higher than ever even though their shipping volumes didn't increase significantly from 2010. What happened?

In all likelihood, you got blindsided by accessorials and surcharges. It is relatively easy to anticipate how the annual rise in carriers' base rates will impact our bottom lines; it is much more difficult to determine what changes in accessorials and surcharges are going to cost us.

In 2011, carriers changed the way dimensional weights were calculated, which also could have had a significant impact on your transportation spend.

Holiday spending isn't anticipated to be high this year, but unfortunately, many shippers are still going to find themselves paying through the nose. Most economists seem to believe that consumer spending next year won't be a whole lot different.

With base rates rising each year, accessorials and surcharges increasing in complexity and resulting in extravagant charges, and shippers having little leverage during rate negotiations due to insignificant increases in volume, there may be no better time to seek out cost-saving solutions.

By auditing your carrier invoices to achieve greater savings, analyzing your detailed shipping history, and using Web-based technology to get full visibility of your supply chain, it is still possible to out-see your carriers. The same basic principles and tools you've used to cut costs in the past can still work. You may have to look at reports and results a little differently, and based on your findings, make more operational changes than you have in the past, but better to act and make those changes now than sit back and wait to see how your shipping spend looks in 2012 before making any major cost-cutting decisions.

Your carriers aren't going to hesitate to give you rates you according to what they believe are your company's shipping characteristics. High-level analysis of your shipping history can help you develop a shipping profile that will reveal your true worth. Knowing your true worth is a gift that'll keep on giving long after the holidays are over.