Freight shipping quote helping you get the best estimates from freight carriers for your shipments. You can compare the quotes from multiple carriers and choose the service provider that best meets your needs.
Here are some tips to help you extract the most value out of a freight shipping quote:
1. Use Freight Quote Calculators
Freight quote calculators help you get a ballpark figure of your shipment costs. There are countless freight quote calculators available on the internet. The simplest of them ask for source, destination, and package category to give you instant freight estimates. The more complex calculators ask for detailed shipment details.
In any case, you get a fair idea of the freight costs for your shipment, so you can avoid the really expensive or really cheap (unreliable) services.
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2. Use Freight Management Software (FMS)
Once upon a time, long, long ago, businesses had to manually call and get freight shipping quotes from each freight carrier before they found a suitable deal. Today, that process is infinitely more streamlined.
Businesses can use tools like FMS to get freight shipping quotes from a vast number of carriers at the click of a button. So, you can compare their prices, service features, and other details in real-time to select the suitable carrier for your needs. In many cases you can even connect these FMS softwares, carriers, and discounted rates to your E-Commerce website or ERP business software. Fully automating the load quoting, booking, and tracking for larger freight sized products sold.
3. Understand Freight Shipping Pricing
Freight shipping quotes are not fully standardized. Some carriers work on a “cost-plus-markup” model, while others give you a flat rate. It’s also common for the final invoices to deviate from the originally quoted prices. So, make sure that you understand your carrier’s pricing model.
As a best practice, ask your potential carriers if their freight rates or quoted prices are guaranteed. See a previous article to understand our best practices for understanding and getting the best LTL freight quotes every single time.
4. Fall-off Coverage
Just because you selected a carrier and assigned them the shipment, it doesn’t mean that your package gets shipped promptly. If the trucker’s driver becomes unavailable, the trucker may return your load. And, you’ll be left scrambling for last-minute arrangements, which almost always mean escalating costs.
So, ask your carrier provider whether they offer fall-off coverage or what their standard operating procedure is for missed pickups.
5. Freight Shipping Reliability
On-time pickup and on-time delivery are the tenets of reliable freight service, but you’d be surprised to know how many carriers have a poor sense of time. If you don’t want to encounter missed appointments, late deliveries, and the resulting customer wrath, then enquire the carriers about their window of punctuality.
The best freight carriers utilize technologies like GPS to provide you real-time updates on the status of your shipment. See our historic articles on new tech-forwarder freight tracking features many carriers and 3PL brokerages are offering.
Conclusion:
Freight shipping quotes bring you speed, transparency, cost savings, and business efficiency. However, you must do your due diligence to enjoy these benefits.
To learn more about our newest FMS tools and how they can help your team further automate, economize, and create full transparency of your freight quoting and shipping process connect with us. We would be happy to give you a quick screen share walk through of our newest online tools and systems. To achieve easy freight shipping quotes and connecting all systems to your e-commerce, and/or ERP business software or other platforms easily.
https://convoy.com/how-freight-quote-calculator/
https://www.freightquote.com/freight-shipping/ltl-less-than-truckload/