When part of your business involves the manufacturing and shipping of heavier items such as large equipment and the like, one of your biggest concerns is just how you are going to be able to ship such things out to your customers in a safe and affordable manner.
Each piece of heavy equipment and machinery serves as an investment on your part and that of your customer. At the end of the day, you don’t want to end up spending more than is necessary to ship your products.
Since shipping larger, heavier items involves a different process than stand shipping methods; you will naturally find yourself spending a fair amount. However, as with anything involving your business, the goal to mitigate costs and find the most affordable method for your purposes is always a priority.
1. Shop Around
Your first step in ensuring that you are paying as little as possible to ship your heavier goods without compromising on the quality of the shipping process itself is to shop around. You don’t simply want to go with the first shipping company that you come across. Rather, it is important to do your homework to make sure that you are getting the best possible price.
If time is becoming a factor and you need to find the right shipping company for the right price sooner rather than later, you can consider having your goods and products shipped by an individual contractor. There are hundreds of qualified and skilled shipping experts looking for jobs on what is called a load board.
You can learn more about this method of finding someone to ship your products at https://www.shiply.com/us/load-board. This approach can drastically reduce the cost of shipping for your company.
2. Consider Offering Local Pickup
Another way to reduce the cost of shipping your heavier goods or even eliminate this cost altogether is to offer pickup options to local customers. Those who are willing to do the work themselves in order to receive their purchases should be given the chance to do so.
You can offer incentives for such customers as well so as to encourage them to pick up their purchases themselves. By eliminating the cost of shipping your products all together in this way, both you and your local customers can stand to save quite a bit on the cost of doing business together.
3. Keep an Eye on Shipping Rates
You might be in a situation where you are stuck paying a certain amount to ship your heavier goods for a while. If this is the case, it is important to keep an eye on high shipping rates so that you can know as soon as possible when they go down.
Likewise, you want to ensure that shipping rates don’t creep up on you undetected. This can wind up costing your business quite a lot in the long run.
