7 game-changing ways to save on shipping

Although shipping costs are a major line item on your organization’s budget, it’s often difficult to see exactly where the money goes. The combination of rate increases, surcharges, accessorial fees and inconsistent shipping processes can prevent you from having complete visibility and control over your shipping spend.

The good news is that you don’t have to let unpredictable costs and inefficient processes sink your shipping budget. With the right technology, it’s now possible to have a full view of your shipping and mailing activity, analyze spend in detail, capture insights, pinpoint issues and identify opportunities to save.

Some savings are easy to spot.

Negotiating with your carrier for discounted rates is a good place to start. These savings are easily quantified, and you’ll see the difference right away in carrier invoices—and your bottom line. But know that rate negotiations can only get you so far. Smart shippers don’t stop there.

Dive deep to save even more.

Some of the most significant savings may not come off your carrier invoice. Instead, they result from making your shipping methods better. This means everything from helping users select the right delivery service to avoiding additional fees, eliminating manual workflows, capturing insights to improve overall efficiency and properly accounting for spend and activity.

Add a new partner—or two. Reliance on a single carrier can limit your cost-saving opportunities and leave you vulnerable to delivery delays and disruptions. Working with multiple shipping carriers gives you greater flexibility. Plus, it motivates carriers to compete harder for your business.
Shop around in seconds. Optimize your shipping spend without compromising service by rate shopping across carriers. With just a few clicks, multi-carrier shipping software can show you the best combination of delivery date and price for everything you ship.
Outsmart hidden fees. Surcharges can make up between 20% and 40% of your annual spend. These can include additional handling charges due to incorrect weight or dimension inputs, peak and fuel charges during the holiday season, residential delivery costs and more. Avoid or limit additional fees: look for smart, multi-carrier shipping software with carrier partnerships that waive certain fees and always present accurate prices before printing a shipping label.
Address your address issues. UPS® and FedEx® charge address correction fees of over $20 per shipment. Errors are easy to make and hard to detect when addresses are entered manually. Choose software that lets you save and input addresses automatically from contact lists (and vet them with address-verification tools). This reduces the likelihood of common and costly address-related mistakes.
Keep everything on track. Save time by digitally tracking and storing chain of custody and proof of delivery for every shipment, both outbound and inbound, all in one place. Ensure mail and parcels are delivered in a time-sensitive manner to the correct recipient within your organization.
Sharpen your insight. Put your data to work identifying opportunities to save. Analytics provide the visibility you need to spot trends, budget accurately and pinpoint areas for improvement across your organization, right down to the individual user.
Drive greater productivity. People are your organization’s biggest cost: help them get more done in less time. Easily manage all shipping, mailing and receiving activity and carrier invoicing in one user-friendly interface. Let them save time, reduce password hassles and improve security with convenient single sign-on. Prevent overspending by controlling access, setting spending limits and implementing business rules by location, department or user. Improve agility by adding users and locations with only minimal IT involvement.

The “must-have” features of a modern business shipping solution.

To take advantage of every opportunity to save, look for shipping software that provides flexibility, scalability, visibility and control. And choose a solution that quickly adapts to new challenges and changing needs. Pitney Bowes can help you tailor a shipping solution to your requirements. Take advantage of increased accuracy, efficiency and transparency—and deeply discounted rates.