{"id":12542,"date":"2021-08-10T15:06:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T22:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/?p=12542"},"modified":"2024-06-10T08:52:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T15:52:16","slug":"choosing-a-shipping-carrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/blog\/shipping\/choosing-a-shipping-carrier\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Choose the Right Shipping Carrier\u2014a DCL Logistics Employee Spotlight with Monica Hayden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shipping costs can make up to 70% of a seller\u2019s transportation budget. Yet there are so many variables that go into total shipping costs that it can be difficult to optimize your strategy. Every seller wants to land in the sweet spot between low cost and premium service. There are certain aspects that experts look at in order to optimize for lower costs, maximum customer satisfaction, and ultimately growth opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s particularly challenging to decipher which carrier service is best in 2021 with so many industry changes and surcharge increases in the past year. DCL Logistics\u2019 Transportation Manager, Monica Hayden says, \u201cI&#8217;m checking online every single day for carrier updates, because I don&#8217;t know when they are gonna decide to put in an extra surcharge. A few years ago I only checked once a year. Now it&#8217;s practically non stop. We have to be on top of these things in order to get the information to our customers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Top Shipping Questions You Should be Asking Your 3PL<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s easy to understand the very basic cost of shipping a product. But nothing is quite that simple or straightforward. Monica says, \u201cOnce a company starts to really look into the details, they\u2019ll see freight adjustments or surcharges. They always have questions about those. It\u2019s my job to help them understand all the details that go into the rates.\u201d It shows the intelligence of a seller who can ask the right questions because there are base transportation rates, but there can be many fees tacked on at the end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are some of the primary questions you need to be asking in order to find the best matched carrier for your needs:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are your shipping characteristics?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s the destination?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the size of the box?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s your ideal transit time?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you need to focus on customer service?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How to Understand Your Shipping Rates<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each carrier has its strengths and weaknesses, some are better for customer service, some are great for certain types of products. Then within each carrier there are many services that sellers can choose from. It truly takes an expert, someone who knows the intricate matrix of all the shipping variables, to best match a carrier to your brand\u2019s needs. Only then can you get to an understanding of what your actual rates will be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monica says, \u201cYou have so many factors you\u2019re looking at: the product itself, weight, the destination. Then it gets so much more complicated when it becomes international. But all of these details are important and need to be taken into consideration when vetting your carrier.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How to Adapt to the State of the Shipping Industry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right now is a really interesting time because UPS and FedEx are tacking on so many surcharges. Sellers aren&#8217;t happy with that because it means they are in a difficult position to either absorb the extra costs or charge consumers. Monica explains, \u201cThese surcharges are often overtaking the original order value of some products. For example, if a customer creates a $10 product, and their shipping is $20 or more, it stops making sense for them to use that carrier. It\u2019s getting a bit ridiculous in some cases. My team and I are working really hard to find other solutions that make a bit more sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because of this she\u2019s seen a growing shift toward using regional carriers. With order volumes continuing to increase since the beginning of the COVID lockdowns, the ecosystem of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/regional-package-carriers-join-the-e-commerce-rush-11624561977\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">regional carriers has blossomed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. They are booming and they aren\u2019t even taking away any business from the major carriers\u2014that\u2019s how much ecommerce has grown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At DCL we have long standing relationships with all the major carriers. Monica explains, \u201cIt\u2019s an important part of my job to have close communication with our reps. For example, there have been a lot of capacity issues recently.\u201d Being in direct communication with our carriers means our team makes the best decisions for our customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monica says the transportation industry has changed a lot in the past few years. Changes that may have taken five or ten years to roll out have been accelerated due to COVID.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A dedicated transportation expert can make that difference for your brand. At DCL Logistics our team helps sellers choose the best carrier, rate-shop shipping services quarterly, and grow into new international markets when the timing is right. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/company\/get-started\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reach out for a quote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if you\u2019re in need of shipping help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shipping costs can make up to 70% of a seller\u2019s transportation budget. Yet there are so many variables that go into total shipping costs that it can be difficult to optimize your strategy. Every seller wants to land in the sweet spot between low cost and premium service. There are certain aspects that experts look [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[2055,32],"class_list":["post-12542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shipping","tag-expert-advice-tips","tag-freight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.5 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Choose the Right Shipping Carrier | DCL Logistics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Expert advice on what questions you should be asking to ensure you&#039;re working with the right carrier &amp; have the right service.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/blog\/shipping\/choosing-a-shipping-carrier\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Choose the Right Shipping Carrier\u2014a DCL Logistics Employee Spotlight with Monica Hayden\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Expert advice on what questions you should be asking to ensure you&#039;re working with the right carrier &amp; 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A writer and blogging specialist for over 15 years, she helps create quality resources for DCL's innovative customers and many other ecommerce brands looking to optimize their business.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/maureenwalsh\/"],"url":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/blog\/author\/maureen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}