Seven ways to minimize the shipping costs for your business

Overnight shipping rate comparison.

It wouldn’t be a faulty to say, that digital communication is a the closest to “modern magic” we get. All it takes is some negotiating, click of a button – and a money transfer is complete a few hours later at most. But what about the old school paper documents, 82% of US companies still use? How fast will the recipient will get necessary papers? And, more importantly, how much money can actually be saved on cutting the budget on overnight deliveries? Some vendors are already implementing unique approaches and hybrid delivery models that allow the customers not to have to print and send anything. See how it works in PDFfiller.

 

Comparing UPS, FedEx, and USPS

Because of the online shopping standarts, most people live under a marketing illusion that any delivery should be free. However for businesses shipping costs are an ongoing challenge. Given this competitive environment, knowing which carrier is best can be a huge advantage.

Here are the 2018 rates on overnight shipping from all major shipping carriers in one place. We’ve compiled various rate charts for different weights and packages going to different shipping zones across UPS, FedEx, and USPS. See how they compare.

Pricing shown in these rows represents the 0.5 lb. price for USPS; for FedEx and UPS, the price shown is for a carrier-provided letter-size envelope, which can weigh up to 0.5 lb.

FedEx Home Delivery is the least expensive option. For the two nearest destinations, USPS Priority Mail, is significantly faster. For the fastest of overnight services, FedEx was again the low cost service most of the time, although UPS had offered service to all of the locations, while FedEx did not. In the end, FedEx generally had the best shipping prices.

 

How to trim the shipping costs?

Negotiate. All shipping companies have pricing schedules based on volume. The more you ship, the lower your rate. But small businesses often don’t even try to negotiate better company rates.

  1. Get suppliers to use your shipping account number. Persuade your domestic partners to ship documents to your company’s FedEx (for example) account number. This not only increases the  shipping volume, which leads to cheaper rates, but also helps prevent partners and clients from padding their shipping costs. For example, Fred DuBois, had cut the shipping costs at his Laptop Battery Express in Cleveland since he founded it in 2007, by receiving the inventory from 12 suppliers, including eight in China and four in the U.S. to his FedEx corporate shipping number.
  2. Consider a regional carrier. Such carriers often provide the same services as FedEx or UPS at a reduced cost. Regional carriers include Spee-Dee Delivery Service in the Midwest, OnTrac in the West and LoneStar Delivery & Process in Texas. Though, you should keep in mind their delivery networks are limited.
  3. Invest in prepaid shipping. To cut FedEx and UPS costs, consider prepaid shipping, which offers a discount rate of up to 20%.
  4. Buy insurance from a third party. While carriers charge about 80 cents for every $100 of insurance, third-party companies like Parcel Insurance Plan and U-PIC Shipping Insurance charge about 45 cents.
  5. Factor in shipping fees before billing. Consider that UPS and FedEx have average fuel and residential surcharges added to their rates, which are typically added to your invoice after a label is paid for and delivered. All the carriers have more than 75 special charges, including fuel surcharges, fees when requiring a signature from the recipient, or Saturday delivery fee. You may choose to bill your clients for those in advance.
  6. Use online shipping.  A great way to save on U.S. Postal Service costs is to pay for your shipping online. You can save up to 16% on priority mail orders and up to 60% on express mail. You also get free pick-up service, priority mail delivery confirmation and shipping supplies when you pay online with the post office.
  7. Consider hybrid services. While they have certain volume, weight and size restrictions, hybrid services like SurePost by UPS and SmartPost by FedEx can cost half as much as standard UPS and FedEx delivery options. Several digital document solutions and platforms also offer such kind of hybrid services.

For example, PDFfiller enables it’s users to send documents via USPS. You and your clients can use PDFfillers digital solution for sending paper PDFs right from PDFfiller account, just like an ordinary paper letter. If you like being able to send PDFs via USPS, you might be interested in the range of other great features that PDFfiller offers. With PDFfiller you can also fax, print out, and send documents for signing. Moreover, you can share, email, send an SMS, and host fillable documents using a unique LinkToFill feature, while not leaving the account.

 


 

Make an informed solution, when choosing a delivery carrier. Don’t miss an opportunity to deliver your document instantaneously. Get a 30-day free trial along with access to all the PDFfiller’s hybrid shipping options.