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Category Archives: Uncategorized

Freight Management – Can It Help Your Firm?

Understanding the true cost of that purchase

As a manager, you would never make a purchase without understanding the true cost of that purchase. The same holds true when it comes to understanding the true costs associated with freight management spending and its implications for a company.

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LCL Shipping – What Is It and How to Take Advantage of It

The advantages of shipping your cargo via LCL?

LCL shipping is an acronym for less than container load. As it states, it’s when your overseas shipment just does not fill a container load, but your cargo still needs routing overseas.

Shipping consolidators provide a service that enables firms and individuals to ship less than container load cargo at a fraction of the cost of a full container, with transit times that can stand up to normal full container load transits.

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Freight Shipping Insights you should know

Freight shipping can be very complex despite its simple appearances, so we have demystified some of the main areas that anyone considering shipping should be aware of prior to shipping their valuable freight safely to its final destination.

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What is LTL Freight vs. Truckload Freight: Are there Differences?

So what’s Less than Truckload, and what is Truckload? 

When it comes to shipping LTL freight vs. Truckload, what initially seems like a simple task can become overwhelming. A lot of consideration comes into play with regards to dimensions, weight, classifications and insurance.  Additional issues can also be thrown into the equation in terms of special services. Tail gate delivery, lumper services, hazmat etc. which will all tend to steer you into one direction or another in terms of a choice of carrier and service to be used. Making a decision between the use of a less than truckload carrier, or a full load carrier is often a difficult one. We have made the decision process easier by outlining some key features of both these services in order to ease your burden in the decision making process.

ltl freight vs. truckload

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LTL Freight Broker – Who Are They and Why Do They Exist?

In order to be able to answer that question, I guess we should explain what LTL Freight Brokers do and how they do it. A freight broker, also known as a 3PL (Third Party Logistics Firm), is usually comprised of a few experts in the field of transportation. These professionals usually have a field of expertise i.e. Ground transportation, Air transportation and Intermodal and usually offer services in all of these areas. A subset of the Ground transportation is comprised of full loads and LTL. Most freight brokers handle LTL freight and could also be called an LTL freight broker.

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Freight Shipping Solutions – Use This To Move Your Freight Fast!

Finding Freight Shipping Solutions Fast

If you are in charge of shipping in your organization, you are probably familiar with the frustrations that come with finding freight shipping solutions on a daily basis for your organization. We won’t even get into the aggravation that comes from co-workers who just have no idea what is involved with shipping products and who place unreasonable demands on the shipping department.

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Shipping Rates – How are Full Truck Load Shipping Rates Calculated

Shipping Rates 

You might think initially that Full Truck Load shipping rates would be easy to calculate, since basically the vast majority of carriers do the calculation based upon mileage. And that is partially true however; there are a lot of factors that come into play. So let’s try to demystify the process, in order to become a bit more informed about the subject and better equipped to reach a more informed decision on the rates that you are presently receiving.

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Canada Customs – How to import commercial products into Canada

Import/Export

Importing commercial products, or for that matter exporting from Canada is normally seen as a very complicated process, but it does not need to be. This article will demystify the import/export process and help you understand Canada custom duties as well as the free trade agreement between the United States and Canada.

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What is LTL Freight? How Is It Priced

Are you wondering what LTL freight is?

Well, the word itself denotes Less Than Truck Load. The trucking industry was initially founded on full truckloads but realized quickly that not all firms needed or could afford paying for a full van which in today’s standards are 53 feet in length.

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How to Find The Best LTL Shipping Rates

LTL Shipping Rates

Photo courtesy of USDAgov(CC Attribution)

If you are in charge of LTL shipping rates in your firm, are you taking advantage of Third Party Logistic firms to enhance your Less Than Truckload  shipping options so that you can then source the best LTL shipping rates out there?

3PL, (Third Party Logistics) firms are a tremendous source of information, and can greatly enhance your ability to fine tune your LTL shipping costs as well as provide faster levels of service than you can generally provide day in and day out. How and why you ask?

Well, that is what they do, all day long. Usually, most individuals in charge of getting rates for shipping have designated second or third functions in a firm. 3PLs concentrate on just that all day long. They have developed systems that provide instantaneous information on truck availability and LTL shipping rates. Those systems, developed by the industry, provide thousands of carriers and 3PL firms (sometimes called load brokers) the ability to post their equipment and loads electronically. These systems then match the carriers with the loads and vice versa. If a 3PL has some Less Than Truckload cargo that must go from A to B, he can then download and find out which carriers are in that specific geographic area and are heading in that general direction in seconds. This would generally take you several hours of calling on the phone without a guarantee of success. It takes them a click of a button.

Of course load brokers provide several other functions as well.

They will vet a carrier, making certain his licensing is up to date, as well as his safety record and insurance. This is an important part of the process that should never be left out.

Experience in the industry is also an added benefit when dealing with 3 PL’s.

There are always circumstances that have to be looked at in order to avoid delays in shipping and/or extra costs. Circumstances like simply finding out if the consignee has a loading dock or if the type of truck ordered will fit into its offloading facility, something I have seen time and time again.

Declared values are another issue.

Are you aware of the limitations of liability when you ship? Like thousands of other shippers, you might not be aware that your Less Than Truckload shipment is covered against loss or damage only up to the limit indicated on the Bill Of Lading. This is usually $ 2.00 /lb (Canada) and $ 0.10 /lb (USA). If you have not otherwise indicated a higher declared value in the appropriate area on the BOL and have agreed to pay for this additional insurance, it can be as much as 2% of the declared value less the standard coverage.

If reducing your LTL shipping costs is a priority in your organization and you would like to know more about how you can fine tune your Less Than Truckload shipping rates, you can visit Skyfer Logistic, a premier third party logistics firm that provides LTL shipping and full truckload rates across the United States and Canada.

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