Consolidate Freight, Cut Fees

Two pallets leave the same supplier on a Tuesday and a Thursday, both routed through the same hub. You pay two minimum charges, two fuel surcharges, two delivery fees and possibly two residential or liftgate fees. Combine them and the second consignment's fixed costs disappear entirely. On a monthly rhythm, that is real money rather than a rounding adjustment.

Accessorials are where the duplication hides

Base freight rates are the visible line. Fuel surcharges, waiting time, liftgate use, redelivery and address corrections sit underneath, and each applies per consignment. Read three recent invoices side by side and mark every charge that appears more than once for goods that could have travelled together. Most operators find two or three such lines per month.

Ask your supplier to hold stock until a threshold is met rather than shipping immediately. Give them a clear rule, such as releasing at one cubic metre or six cartons, and accept a slightly longer lead time. The trade-off is inventory age against freight cost, and for durable goods the freight saving usually wins.

Consolidating fights just-in-time planning

Compare holding cost against freight saving before adopting a blanket rule. If you sell perishable goods, or stock that funds a promotion, waiting four extra days for a fuller truck can cost more in lost sales than you save on shipping. Consolidation rewards categories with predictable demand and punishes anything where a stockout ends a customer relationship.

Actionable step: for one quarter, record every inbound consignment with date, cost and cubic volume. At the end, group them by supplier and look for pairs that fell within five days of each other. Those pairs are your consolidation candidates, and the list is usually obvious once the data sits in one place.

Fuller trucks create their own bottleneck

Fewer, larger deliveries concentrate receiving work into single days, which can overwhelm a small warehouse and delay put-away. Spreading deliveries gave you quiet afternoons; consolidation gives you one hard morning. Plan staffing around the new rhythm, or you will trade a freight saving for late dispatches that cost more.