5 Things Your Small Business Should Understand About Freight Services

As your small business grows, it needs to be teaming up with services that can streamline its processes without breaking the bank.

These services can give you access to their resources and help you live up to the quality and efficiency that your clients are expecting.

One of such services might be through a national courier, who can offer you freight shipping. It’s a tremendous option that is both cost-effective and for keeping up with demand. 

Learning a bit about it beforehand can help you understand what to expect. Here are several things you should know about freight services being used by your business.

1. Understand the Freight Shipping Terminology

As a small business owner, you already wear enough hats during each business day to last you a lifetime. In fact, your entire staff has become a jack of all trades for departments they had no prior experience with.

A freight shipping service will help take the dilemmas of distribution out of your hands, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand the terminology.

Knowing things such as a freight broker, intermodal, freight forwarder, accessorial charges, and commodity will go a long way.

Generally, the freight shipping company will try to avoid freight jargon with their clientele, but some of the terms are unavoidable.

All of the terms above play a part in your shipping. For example, a freight broker is someone who sells freight transportation but doesn’t offer it themselves. 

Freight forwarders are those that optimize the less-than-truckload and less-than-carload shipment methods. These can help you avoid the large costs of a freight truck and only pay for the space on that truck that you need.

Understanding these terms ahead of time will build the relationship between you and your trusted freight shipping service. However, if you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them.

2. Substantial Savings on Shipping

If you’re going to invest in freight shipping, why wouldn’t you want to understand the amount that you’re saving on distribution?

By teaming up with a freight shipping service, you’re giving your small business access to someone with the experience and know-how in the shipping industry. 

They can help you discover the right methods of shipping (such as less-than-truckload), find trusted carriers, and get the best quotes for your needs. Depending on your small business’s size, that could mean savings of up to five or six figures!

Freight shipping rates are always competitive, so you’ll be able to find a budget-friendly option with relative ease. It’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about on a daily basis.

3. Understand the Types of Freight

Not many people realize how many different freight shipping options there are in this day in age.

You can choose less than truckload freight, full truckload, intermodal rail, ocean freight, air freight, or expedited freight. For obvious reasons, options like air freight are great to have for long-distance shipping.

Knowing your options is crucial since you’ll want to know the type of freight that you’re shipping on.

Not to mention that they all use different processes in distribution. They’re all priced differently, which is something to consider for your budget. Lastly, not all options will be available through the freight service you choose.

That’s a good thing! you want to team up with a freight service that are experts in a few of these methods. Join forces with the industry leaders in the freight types that they provide and your small business will be good to go!

4. High-Quality Carriers

One of the most common mistakes that companies make when overseeing their own freight shipping is using a poor quality carrier service to save money.

By doing so, they risk the items that they’re shipping being damaged, late, or never arriving at all. If your products show up on a client’s doorstep damaged, you’re dealing with their frustration, not the carrier service who is at fault.

When you choose to have a freight shipping service take the reigns, you’re automatically lining yourself up with a higher standard of shipping.

Freight services rely on the quality and efficiency of the carriers they use since they don’t want to risk losing your future business.

That means that you can have peace-of-mind, knowing the carriers that are distributing your freight are top of the line.

5. Understand the Significant Help It Is for Your Business

Ideally, the products that you sell will become in such high demand that your small business can no longer oversee the shipping on its own.

When that happens, you’ll need to find a third-party you can trust to take the wheel (pun intended) of your freight shipping. That way, you can focus on the business and have expert freight logistics providers focus on your distribution.

Don’t waste precious hours in your company’s workweek stressing over freight shipping on your own. 

team up with a provider that has the technology, process, and knowledge to keep up with the ever-increasing demand of your company’s products. They’ll be with you as you continue to grow.

Find a Provider of Freight Services That You Can Trust

Now that you’ve seen all the aspects that would be advantageous for you to understand freight services, it’s time to find the right shipping partner.

Take your time doing research on shipping terms so that you know the right questions to ask the freight providers you’re considering.

Be sure to read this article on air freight for an all-encompassing guide on the type of freight that’s in such high demand.

For more inquiries, please feel free to fill out an online request for a quote and we’ll be happy to assist you further.