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Why Is Carrier Compliance Important For Shipping Success?

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Businesses incur quite a bit of a cost in order to make their products accessible to customers. Freight cost contributes to the final price-point of the product, making it an important factor for your business. Various rules and regulations have been introduced by the government to ensure public safety. In 1938, the first Hour of Service (HOS) law was introduced. It highlighted the number of hours a truck driver can work each day. This rule was further revised in 2012. Over the course of years, government has introduced more regulations to make shipping safer for carriers and consumers. To ensure road safety, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) introduced a Safety Measurement System (aka CSA scores) that ranked the safety of commercial carriers. What is CSA? Compliance, Safety and Accountability are the three broad parameters against which the performance of different carriers is judged. CSA aims to mitigate road risk for public and carriers. I...

Being On Time Will Save Your Online Business

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Timeliness is crucial for the success of your ecommerce platform. Lack of physical presence puts extra stress on appearance and timeliness of your package. Delays in delivery time or lack of tracking services can cost you customers and severely impact profitability. Adherence to delivery timeframe influence customer satisfaction and sets you apart from your competition. Companies, who make sweeping claims about same-day delivery and fail to deliver, lose credibility and customer trust. On-time delivery is the ability to meet customer demands on a pre-determined time and place. You need to deliver your product in the right place, at the right time. Avoid customer disappointment by fulfilling your promise and offering unparalleled after-sale services. On-time delivery needs to be your business priority, because of the key-role it plays in your profitability. Impact of On-time Delivery Builds reputation You make a promise to deliver the product on time. Customers lose...

How to Create a Carrier Strategy That Works Any Time of Year

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When it comes to choosing a shipping carrier, most businesses pick carriers one at a time and then negotiate rates. However, your company’s shipping demands keep fluctuating within a year. To keep up with the changing shipping needs, businesses must design an effective carrier strategy that can work any time of the year.   Here is a simple guide on how to create a carrier strategy for your business: Creating a Carrier Mix Most companies use two or three carriers to transport products. However, if you want to achieve efficiencies and cost savings, you should select at least have 5 carriers. Having access to a variety of carriers gives you diversification and allows maximum flexibility when dealing with customers. If a carrier suspends its operations due to weather conditions, you can opt for another carrier service. Your shipping strategy must have the right mix of carriers. Your Business Goals Next step, align carriers with your business goals and objectives....

Carrier Compliance In Shipping: Everything You Need to Know

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When it comes to shipping, compliancy matters. Carrier compliance means to comply with the rules and regulations set by carriers for contracting with them. These include rules for labeling, rating and manifest reporting. Generally speaking, shipping carriers are constantly updating rating labels and other significant information. Therefore, it is crucial that businesses take compliance seriously. Lack of compliance can lead to several bottle necks in the supply chain process. It can adversely affect order fulfillment as well as customer experience. Although carrier compliance is important to ensure shipping successful operations, it is one of the toughest areas to handle. This is particularly true for companies engaged in international markets. The international shipping arena involves several customs rules, tariffs and packaging specifications. Needless to say, failure to handle these aspects properly can cause delays in deliveries. To simplify and streamline carr...

Amazon Selling for Beginners: Getting Started with the Process!

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Perhaps you are an already established seller, planning to promote and sell your product(s) on the Amazon Marketplace for the first time. Or perhaps you’re new in the business world, and you’ve decided to launch your entrepreneurial journey with Amazon. Whatever the case might be, what really concerns you at the moment is: How to start selling on Amazon. This article will walk you through the basics of Amazon selling. It does not discuss everything, but it does cover the essentials, such as: -  How selling on Amazon works? -  What are the things you need to set up an Amazon account? -  What types of accounts you can set on Amazon as a seller? -  How to decide which product to sell on Amazon? So let’s get started… How selling on Amazon works? The process is very simple. You register yourself as a supplier on Amazon. You create a listing of products that you want to sell, and you go active with your account. Customers come to Amazon. ...

Pre-Shipment Checklist

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Business models have developed and expanded considerably. Today, customer can place orders for just about anything from across the globe, with a simple click. Availability and accessibility of a product is what attracts customers. If you have a great product, that remains unreachable to the masses because of supply chain shortcomings, several aspects of your business model need to be revised. To streamline your logistics, here is a complete list of things you need to keep in mind when shipping a product. Storage Space You can improve operational efficiencies by re-visiting your system. Start by utilizing storage space. Limit storage of unnecessary items. Stock your inventory with your business’s leading products. A smart way to enhance efficiency is pre-pack some of your best-selling products to save delivery time. Apart from being organized, your storage space needs to be properly labeled. Effective categorizing and sorting of the store will reduce search time. Devi...

5 Steps To Reduce Inbound Shipping Budget

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Business sustainability is dependent on the effective deployment of assets and cost saving policies. One of the costs that impact businesses is inbound shipping. What Is Inbound Logistics? It’s simply the system that monitors the supply of goods to your business. This system includes the transportation, storage, and timely delivery of products. Each stage sustains a huge amount of cost. A small error in order placement can over-stock or under-stock your warehouse, costing your business millions of dollars. Therefore, it’s essential to streamline the process and reduce costs at every level .  Here are some cost saving strategies for your business. Accurate Costing In order to save cost, you need to determine the accurate cost of each unit. The supplier’s invoice accounts for the carrier’s cost in the total cost of your order. This increases the cost of your product. Apart from the additional cost form supplier’s side, your product is also susceptible to mar...