 Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
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Originally Posted by vogeltron  Since I am out on the west coast and I get lots of my items from the East Coast. It is amazing how much cheaper it can be to get a pallet than have each box shipped UPS or FedEx ground. For example a 30lb box from NY/NJ to CA is like $50 UPS Ground. If you can get 30 of those and stick them on a Pallet can get rates as low as $300-400. Save like $1200 in shipping costs alone.
I will say it is nice to work with someone who ships freight allot. Rates on the same shipments can be $400 at one company then one down the street wants $2k.
Also if you do lots of freight and have stuff delivered to your residence. Never allow the drivers to pull that we gotta charge you $80 or whatever for the lift-gate. I mean unless you ordered items that are hundreds of pounds. As long as you can break the pallet down that is such a sham.
Ever time I get a freight shipment seems like the drivers wants to try to stick me with a charge for the lift-gate. But then when I say na we can just break down the pallet and you can unload stuff to me. The driver is always in a hurry and don't want to work that hard so they almost always just say I won't say anything about this. | Good post.
Freight companies have crazy pricing structures. You only ship once every six months, oh that pallet will cost you $600. You ship daily, oh that'll be $100. The disparity is unreal. There are so many carriers out there and it's impossible for the little guy to even take the time that would be required to do the research to get the best rate. You MUST out-source this part. At the end of the day it still might be best to self-ship, but you won't even give yourself a chance to make that assessment without bringing in industry experts....they don't cost anything either, as they are vying for business too. It's best for them to make $10 off of your shipment than for you to spend an extra $200 by not shipping on someone else's heavily-discounted account.
Regarding lift-gate, most freight companies will indeed consider that a surcharge, however some carriers, like R&L, have lift-gates on all their trucks and they do not charge extra for it. When I ship to clients who do not have a dock I utilize R&L almost exclusively.
Another critical surcharge is 'Residential' versus 'Commercial' - that can add $100 to the freight charge and even worse, can also eliminate a potentially great rate. Example, we have negotiated a rate with a carrier which essentially makes all Class 150 shipments priced as if they are Class 100. Well, this becomes null and void if shipping to a residence, so again, you are losing out on more than just the residential surcharge itself - you lose the discounted base rate, too.
To the OP, they only way to figure out what's best for you in your situation is to find the best outsourced rate to move the pallet(s) then compare that cost to what it 'costs' you to move the goods. If you cannot find a good source for a shipping rate, then it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.
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