Whether you’re utilizing Trinity’s services to arrange your truckload shipments or working with carriers to cover your freight on your own, there are six easy steps you can take and preventative actions you can carry out in order to save a little bit of money on your shipments.

1 ) Know the details. Make sure you provide as many details about the load as possible. No amount of information is too much information. You should always be sharing what the load consists of, the number of pallets, and most importantly, the weight. When determining the weight of your shipment, it’s imperative to ensure that information is as accurate as humanly possible. Usually, you’ll get about 2,000 pounds of wiggle room, but if there’s a discrepancy larger than that – particularly, if the load is heavier than you claimed – the carrier will charge you, because the they will be using more fuel to transport your freight than originally planned. This upgrade in price will likely cost you more than if you had just provided an accurate weight at the beginning.

2) Be ready. Make sure your truckload freight is ready to be loaded as soon as the driver arrives. If it’s not, you risk paying detention fees for the time the driver has to sit around waiting for you. Similarly, if you can, ensure that the receiving location of your shipment is ready for the driver to unload your freight upon arrival, and that they know when the driver will be arriving. If not, again, you could get slammed with detention fees (and there is no set hourly rate – depending on the consequences of his or her wait, a driver can charge you for however much he or she deems fit!)

3) Be honest. If there’s no one there to unload at your receiving location and the driver has to unload your truckload shipment himself – or even touch it at all – it will generally cost more. This is inevitable. However,  it’s vital that you make sure to tell the driver he will have to touch it beforehand. If he doesn’t know and it’s a surprise to him when he arrives, you will likely be charged much more for this additional service than if you had indicated it was necessary up-front.

4) Be flexible. Know the days that your truckload shipment absolutely must pick up by and absolutely must deliver by. If you can be flexible on the pick-up day, as long as your shipment still delivers on the same day, you may be able to save money. Additionally, if you are able to book a shipment some days in advance, it will likely be far less expensive than booking it on the same day. Giving it some lead time means there’s more capacity at the time you book the shipment and rates will usually be lower.

5) Offer volume. If you offer 20 shipments a month to a carrier or broker, you’ll probably get lower overall rates than if you offer one shipment, one time only. If you don’t have much volume to offer, working with Trinity allows you to leverage our volume and take advantage of the lower rates we can obtain through those means.

6) Know the value. Be cognizant of the value of your shipment. Most carriers have insurance for up to $100,000, so if it’s below that, it doesn’t really matter. But if the value is higher than that, you will likely have a smaller selection of carriers to choose from who are able to carry that level of insurance, plus you may have to pay more for them to seek out special insurance for that particular load. Be aware that shipping such high-value loads could mean more expense for you.

By putting these easy practices into place, you can save loads (no pun intended) of money! Print out this blog, make a checklist, or run through a list of mental reminders every time you book a load, and be sure to share this post with anyone you know who ships a lot of truckload freight.

Whether truckload freight is a huge aspect of your business or you only ship a few loads per month, Trinity can help you with your transportation needs. Stop worrying about your shipments and let us help! If you’d like more information on shipping truckload, you can chat with us here.