Make LTL Shipping the Most Effective Transit Method for You
Less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping is one of the most efficient ways to move your freight when you cannot justify the cost of a full truckload. Not only is LTL shipping efficient, but it also allows for quicker delivery times and ideally lower costs.
For many businesses, shipping via LTL across the country, or even locally, can be stressful and time consuming without proper knowledge and assistance. Learning to recognize and prevent these common LTL shipping mistakes is crucial to keeping shipping costs down and fostering productivity.
Let’s take a look at the most common LTL shipping mistakes that could hinder productivity and keep you from reaping the full benefits of LTL shipping:
Top 3 LTL Shipping Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Comparing Carriers on Your Own
LTL shippers tend to develop strong relationships with their preferred carrier. However, carriers are always raising prices and changing methods for determining rates and standards. When you need to get your freight moving at an economic rate, the ideal solution is to ship with a carrier that provides customer-specific pricing.
At PLP Logistics, we believe in saving our customers money, and it all starts with negotiating the right price with the right carrier for the exact services that your company needs. PLP only partners with top-tier carriers who value what we value- excellent customer service and quality shipping processes that deliver your freight with care.
Relying on Published Transit Times for Deliveries
Businesses tend to look at on time delivery as a key metric because it can be measured through objective facts like numbers and data mining. However, on time delivery is measured by the transit times the LTL carriers give you and may not always be 100% accurate. If you or your customers absolutely need a shipment to deliver by a certain time, DO NOT go by the published transit time.
PLP does everything possible to ensure the best service for our customers, and we try to be proactively ahead of these issues. We offer guaranteed service with all of our carriers, and we’re experts at holding them accountable for said service.
Using Volume-Based Pricing
Most LTL carriers and Third Party Logistic (3PL) companies try to set black and white pricing rules that are often not convenient or customizable to the customer. Those conversations go a little something like this:
"For any shipment that is more than 6 standard pallets or 7,000 lb” you must get a volume quote.
Shopping each carriers rules and then weighing the costs and benefits of each is incredibly time-consuming and not the most cost-effective way to do business. When you work with PLP Logistics, you don’t need to do volume quotes. We monitor the pickups as they come through our website, and we can quickly determine applicability of the LTL pricing.
No matter the freight, no matter how complex, PLP has a competitive solution for you. We are willing to tackle the obstacles that carriers and 3PL companies put in place, and we prevent your business operations from slowing down.
Choose LTL Shipping with Confidence
Shipping mistakes are unavoidable. It’s how these mistakes are handled that will make or break your supply chain. PLP constantly strategizes ways to go above and beyond our competitors when it comes to serving our customers. For many of the problems that arise, our customers “don’t even have to ask”.
We proactively engage with solutions to resolve issues, and we’re ready to do the same for you. Give us a call, and we’ll make sure your LTL freight gets to its destination on time, on budget, and with ease.