The process of asking quotes for a cargo transportation service has some tricks that are not very obvious at first. Here are some tips that allow you to obtain lower prices for your transports.
1. Pack your cargo using boxes or pallets
The cargo's package is one of the most important factors when it comes to determining a price for its transport. Putting the cargo in boxes or pallets is one of the ways to have lower quotes for a transportation service, even if the cargo's weight and the pickup and delivery addresses are exactly the same. This happens because, for the shipping companies, it is easier to manage the vehicle's capacity knowing that the cargo will be prepared in volumes for which they are used to working with already.
2. Schedule the transportation service as soon as possible
Asking for quotes to transport your cargo ahead of time allows transportation providers to manage all their cargo with coincident routes. On this cases, the transporter will maximize the capacity in use of its vehicles, this way optimizing the costs related to the shipping service. On the other hand, the transport's urgency may require a dedicated service, having a vehicle doing solely that specific transport, which translates to much higher costs. On an ideal situation, you should be asking for quotes, at least three days before the desired pickup date.
3. Provide complete information to the transportation company
When picking up the cargo, or sometimes even after that moment (e.g. at the distribution hub), the transporter will verify if the real weight and dimensions match the service that was initially quoted. In case there is not a match between what was asked and the real cargo, the transporter may:
a) refuse to proceed with the transportation service right on the pickup moment, while still charging for part of it or in total (depending on the company's policy), once the shipping company already had the cost of moving to the pickup location;
b) accept doing the cargo's pickup, charging anyway an extra fee due to the non correspondence with the previously presented details.
On both situations, a higher price will be charged due to communication flaws between both parties. To avoid additional fees in your transports, try to provide information as complete as possible to the service provider, either related to the cargo itself, but also when it comes to the pickup and delivery locations (e.g. does the building have an elevator? is a lifting platform required to complete the transportation service with success?).
4. Be aware of the cargo's volumetric weight
The majority of the transportation companies establishes prices based on the volumetric price, whenever this is superior to the cargo's actual weight.
5. Compare prices from multiple providers
Once the routes from different transporters vary according to the solicited services on a certain period, it is essential that you compare quotes from different shipping companies whenever you need to transport any cargo - at least if you want to obtain the lowest price possible for each situation. MUB cargo's platform allows you to easily do that, having more than 400 transportation partners for all types of cargo, for pickups and deliveries in the European Union.
This is just a brief setof tips that help you obtain lower quotes for your cargo transportation services. In order to make sure you obtain a more competitive price for your transport, simulate a shipping price at MUB cargo or start a cargo auction amongst more than 400 transporters!