The arrival of fall marks the beginning of the biggest annual influx in demand for the transportation of freight. This is caused by the flurry of demand from shoppers that crop up in anticipation of the holiday season. While increased demand means increased business opportunity, it can also mean a headache for players in the logistics industry — shippers, forwarders, carriers and retailers alike — as they gear up to deal with the season’s intensity. Retailers hire on seasonal employees, while carriers brace for capacity to be pushed to the limits.

Carriers raise their rates to compensate for increased costs in fuel, equipment, technological investment, and the cost of paying their drivers.

Peak season manifests in the costs shippers pay to carriers in the form of General Rate Increases (GRIs). Carriers raise their rates to compensate for increased costs in fuel, equipment, technological investment, and the cost of paying their drivers. Depending on the current economic climate that year, GRIs can be higher or lower, but average at around 5 percent.

Which factors will be especially affected during this year’s peak season, considering the current economic climate?

Higher demand for e-commerce

Consumers’ love affair with online shopping is not going anywhere anytime soon. E-tailer juggernaut Amazon.com had their most successful Amazon Prime Day in history. International shoppers purchased over 100 million products on the website and the company saw more sign-ups for its Prime service on July 16, the Monday before the event than any day in company history.

With the boom showing no signs of slowing down, the rising costs to secure capacity are sure to remain a theme during peak season this year.

E-commerce directly affects the demand for logistics services, as it raises the demand for more routes and last-mile services. With the boom showing no signs of slowing down, the rising costs to secure capacity are sure to remain a theme during peak season this year.

The driver shortage

With the simultaneous driver shortage caused by a retiring generation of truck drivers and the somewhat unpopular ELD mandate, carriers are paying higher than average wages in order to attract good drivers. The domino effect through the supply chain means that this is another cost reflected in the GRIs that shippers pay, and ends up detracting from your company’s bottom line.

Continuously rising fuel costs

During the spring of 2018, diesel prices increased in every region of the country with prices above $3 per gallon in many key logistics regions of the United States, and in August, diesel fuel costs 23 percent more compared to the previous year. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. According to the Journal of Commerce, U.S. contract truckload rates will likely cool down to a more modest 5 percent on average in 2019, but will still be higher than in years past; the overall increases are another major factor that will continue to play into rising GRIs.

In the Case Study, “Manual Cost Removal and Freight Cost Reduction for Hardware,” BlueGrace explores a scenario in which a big box client grapples to deal with increases in GRIs. The client was operating with a single national carrier model, which at a time, was working sufficiently enough for the supplier. However, as demand increased and their business had grown, the old-fashioned operational system began to prevent the company from reaching its full potential. Operations were becoming time-consuming, employees were becoming overwhelmed, and profits were suffering.

Negotiating GRI costs with carriers during times of unexpected rate increases was a major emerging problem for the company.

Negotiating GRI costs with carriers during times of unexpected rate increases was a major emerging problem for the company. Its lack of digital booking meant that there was no way for them to verify if the invoiced amount of the shipment was the same as the quoted amount of the shipment. In addition, the overwhelming amount of volume being moved was creating a bottleneck in the process, due to the time required to record data manually.

The supplier contacted BlueGrace to address these issues, agreeing to integrate its in-house Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with BlueShip®, BlueGrace’s Transportation Management System (TMS). In doing so, they were able to negate the time-consuming process of manually booking shipments by digitalizing the process. Digitalization also enabled the client to access its own data with better transparency, allowing it to make better-informed business decisions.

Once processes are made electronic, companies like BlueGrace are also able to help businesses save by using their pre-negotiated contracts with all of the carriers whose GRIs don’t adhere to the standard set by larger companies and working with online service providers directly to handle complex negotiations so that the client doesn’t have to.

Once processes are made electronic, companies like BlueGrace are also able to help businesses save by using their pre-negotiated contracts with all of the carriers whose GRIs don’t adhere to the standard set by larger companies and working with online service providers directly to handle complex negotiations so that the client doesn’t have to. The result is a lower cost paid by the client, and a healthier bottom line; the supplier detailed in the case study ended up saving 13 percent of their yearly freight spend, which added up to $260,000 annually.

To find out how implementing can enable your business to achieve its optimal cost reduction surrounding issues like GRIs to reach its full profit potential during the peak season rush, contact us at 800.MYSHIPPING or fill out the form below to speak to one of our freight experts today.