You can make customers happy and reduce shipping costs with freight consolidation.
Freight consolidation can serve as an exceptional alternative to standard long-haul shipping. It’s also called assembly service, cargo consolidation, and consolidation service. You may also hear people call it less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping.
No matter what the name, it still provides the same great advantages. If you need to move goods, you should learn more about this cost-effective shipping method.
Read on to learn more about the benefits of freight consolidation.
Trimming Expenses With Freight Consolidation
There are several ways that freight consolidation can help your company to save money. To begin with, you’ll save money because you share the cost of shipping with other clients.
With LTL shipments, you combine your freight with that of other companies. Because you combine your freight with other companies’ cargo, you no longer have to worry about paying for empty space.
Now, you don’t have to continue to feel penalized because you can’t fill the truck. From here on out, you only pay for the space that you use by using cargo consolidation.
There’s also another side to this coin. You can also save by shipping items in bulk. If you can fill the truck, you’ll enjoy considerable savings.
Furthermore, your customers save too. You can ship orders more often and in smaller amounts.
Because of this, you’ll see your cash flow increase. Your retailers will also see an increase in cash flow, and they’ll thank you for it.
With freight consolidation, you can also avoid the cost of storage and inventory management. You can also save money by receiving shipments using freight consolidation.
For small-to-midsized businesses, every dollar matters. Freight consolidation can serve as an invaluable lifeline. This advantage is vital in a marketplace with ever-increasing shipping costs.
LTL Shipments Offer Flexibility That Meets Your Needs
The freight consolidation process is flexible. For instance, you can choose either on-site or off-site consolidation service. Also, consolidated shipment increases logistics transparency.
There are a few different ways that you can manage freight consolidation. Either way, your LTL shipment will pass through fewer hands and move through the logistics channel more efficiently. This benefit improves both cost-effectiveness and productivity.
On-site cargo consolidation works best if you already have insight into the availability of goods. It happens as close to the top of the logistics chain as possible, sometimes even at the point of manufacture. However, it does take considerable resources to make on-site shipping consolidation work.
Alternatively, off-site freight consolidation involves receiving your goods at another location. At the new site, you’d sort and combine your shipment.
Now, your consolidated shipment is organized and ready to head to various destinations. Off-site consolidation works best for companies with limited visibility of deliverables.
It offers more flexibility with transit time. However, there are extra costs involved with off-site consolidation because you must pay additional shipping and consolidation warehouse expenses.
It can prove challenging to choose the best shipping method for your organization. Accordingly, it makes sense to collaborate with a well-qualified third-party logistics (3PL) partner to guide you in this matter.
Go With LTL Shipping for Improved Customer Satisfaction
Out of control shipping can ruin your relationship with your clients. No retailer is happy if you continually miss shipping deadlines.
Freight consolidation can help you move your goods to your customers quickly and efficiently. You can use it to improve your operation, especially if you have advanced insight into the delivery of your goods.
By partnering with a 3PL service, you can consolidate your shipment and have it sent to your customers straight from the manufacturer. This method will save your organization considerable time, compared to receiving goods and re-shipping them from your company facility.
Shipping consolidation gives you more control over production schedules and delivery deadlines. Today’s market is complex and unpredictable. Resultantly, shipping consolidation is more relevant now than ever before.
Today, retailers want orders more frequently. At the same time, they want small orders.
What this means for you is less lead time and less product for each cargo run. If this is the case for your organization, it may turn out that shipping consolidation is more of a necessity than a convenience.
The hard part about getting into shipping consolidation is figuring out if it’s right for your organization. A trustworthy partner can help you make an informed decision.
LTL Shipping That You Can Count On
Today, shipping is about more than moving goods – it’s also about relationships. Customers need to know that they can count on you to move goods, and you need to know that you can rely on your 3PL partner.
A good relationship with a reliable shipping company will help you maintain control of your operation. Alternatively, a poor relationship with your shipping company can prove costly.
Shipping consolidation offers a viable solution for moving goods in a changing marketplace. More importantly, it enables you to build the kind of relationship needed to keep customers and sustain your operation.
Take the Risk out of Shipping
A dedicated freight consolidation system takes the risk out of moving your goods. There’s less risk because you’re ordering fewer shipments. Fewer shipments mean fewer things can go wrong.
Patriot Freight Group understands what it feels like to get caught in a lousy shipping relationship. We know how logistics bottlenecks occur and can help your organization avoid them.
Whether your shipping job is big or small, you need a reliable shipper. Patriot Freight Group is here to meet your shipping demands – on time and on budget.
Contact our shipping experts today to find out how we can take your logistics operations to the next level.
