If you are into the manufacturing, distribution, or any related business which requires you to ship your goods to clients you will always be puzzled with the question as to how to reduce freight costs. In your quest to streamline and better your business output, one of the main factors any business usually looks at is optimizing and reducing costs. Here are a few tips to keep in mind to reduce freight costs.

Consolidate Your Freight:

This concept can help reduce freight costs by up to 25% if done right. The process is simple; instead of shipping smaller shipments separately one can consolidate all of them together into a large shipment. There might be a small increase in the duration of shipment but the reduced costs will be highly beneficial. 

Ship on off peak days:

If you deal with high volumes of shipment you can try shipping these goods on off peak days for a better rate that will result in cost reduction. In the shipping industry, the off peak days are considered as Friday and Mondays. One can also make use of another economical concept called Backhaul shipping, where empty trucks returning from delivery point to base are used to transport goods at much lower costs. One needs to keep in mind though, that this concept can only be used when dealing with non-perishable goods.

Understand Your Freight Class:

Freight is classified into various classes and these often get re-classified along the way. It is very important for one to understand how freight classification works. Freight classes are determined by stowability, liability, ease of handling and density of a product.The lower your freight class, the lower will one’s freight rates, hence it is important to understand freight classification and properly classify ones shipping.

Research freight of all kinds:

Freight All Kinds of FAK is a term coined in the shipping industry that signifies rates applicable in general to all types of goods and not restricted to any particular commodity. Every commodity that needs to be shipped is assigned a value of classification after taking into account the difficulty in transporting it. FAK groups are formed to help simplify the process for companies that have loads of different types of goods to be shipped. FAK groups multiple classes of freight into a single class. These can be used when:

1. Shipping freight in a low freight class
2. Shipping mixed freight pallets
3. Shipping density-based commodities
4. Shipping high-value items

Outsource your transportation department:

If you are a small company then freight management will not always be your core competency. Choosing to outsource your transportation department to the companies providing the best Freight forwarding solutions in India will transfer the financial burden of staffing and capital expenditures on to those who are professionally equipped to handle it. The Best freight forwarding companies in Indiabuy fuel in bulk, possess their own trucks, have freight experts on board all of which help save a lot of money in the long run. 

Also Read: 7 Factors that are affecting Freight Shipping Rates

Shipping of products need not always be an expensive affair. Try and avoid rigid decisions of believing that there is only one way of doing things. Adopt change by utilising modern methods adopted by Top logistics solutions in India and reap the fruits of increased profits.