In the age of global supply chains, parcel spend management is as complex as ever and becomes even more challenging as businesses scale. When sales volumes increase, and customer relationships stretch worldwide, shippers can apply agile logistics processes and technology to check last-mile deliveries and quick returns.
Traditional systems and manual parcel spend management can delay parcel shipments, leave money on the table, and hamper your crucial growth opportunities. To effectively optimize your shipping budget and drive growth, organizations need integrated solutions such as parcel management solutions.
If you regularly ship parcels using one or multiple carrier service providers and spend thousands in shipping costs. Then it means you are a big player in the parcel shipping industry. Carriers will provide you all the major services they can offer, and they will charge you for it. But somewhere during this transaction, carriers start charging you hidden surcharges and unwanted fees that are not covered in your parcel contract. So, what you do? You know renegotiating your carrier contract is needed. But do you know about industry-appropriate market rates? This is where a resilient parcel spend management expert software comes to light.
As you manage your parcel spend, here are five ways to boost your profits and save costs using a parcel management solution:
Stay in Touch with E-Commerce Growth
A recent Wall Street Journal article showed us that the e-commerce industry is still on the boom and will continue this pace in the future. This has enabled parcel carriers to grow as well. Whenever a certain industry grows, a service provider to that industry also hopes to expand accordingly, and that’s why whenever we see a slight improvement in e-commerce’s stats, carrier service providers have invested more fiercely in that sector, which brings us to our next point.
Observe The Investments of Carrier Service Providers
As we mentioned in the previous point, every time e-commerce industry steps towards growth, carrier service providers enhance their investment and improve their service quality to get more business from the e-commerce industry. As a parcel shipper, you always hope that carriers strengthen their services with better speed, efficient delivery management, and reduced rates. While UPS and FedEx often mimic each other, you can always look for a regional carrier service provider who can offer you better rates.
Understand The Routes You are Using the Most
Whenever you try to renegotiate your parcel rates with your carrier service provider, understand what routes, zones, and lanes you are using on a regular basis. You can negotiate more successfully if you have access to this data. An agile parcel spend management software enables you to access all this information so that you can negotiate with more confidence and get better rates from the carriers.
Always Consider the Cost of Rate Changes
Another crucial aspect to consider before you start negotiations is to anticipate the cost of a rate change on your parcel activities. Again, this activity will require you to connect with a parcel management solution provider to drill down on your parcel contract to pinpoint the hidden charges. It’s always a good practice to compare your existing spend against general rate increases and potential changes to your current contract and to compare the rates across carriers.
Audit Your Parcel Invoices – Do Not Pay More Than You Should
Your net shipping rates, absolute minimum charges, dimensional weights, and accessorial charges should always be in check so that you do not overpay the carriers. An optimum parcel delivery management system can be utilized to keep all these requirements in check. Also, ensure that if you are overspending on your parcel shipping, you get your money back from the carrier service providers in the form of audit rebates.
Transimpact’s Parcel Spend Management provides easy-to-use tools and solutions that enable our clients to quickly and easily retrieve needed information. Our parcel management services empower our clients to access valuable information to negotiate better and keep their parcel spending always in check. To know more about our solutions and high-touch service, talk to our experts or schedule a demo.