Discounted Shipping rates?? FedEx/UPS

[shelbylate]

For one I feel totally confident answering this question about shipping. I am a former UPS account executive and negotiated rates for business. Basically you have to remember that everyone is looking to make money and they will discount the most profitable products, air. I usually didn't waste my time doing discounts until they were shipping 10 packages a day. Not to say that I haven't but every account executive is held responsible for creating revenue and if you don't ship and you projected the business you discounted would you have to sometimes removed the discount. Anyway I havent worked there in a few years and there were definately areas of the country we were targeting growth and looking to pick up the competitions business. I would request a meeting with an account executive but do your homework in advance.

 

Best wishes!

Shelbylate

[draxion]

Great Thread!

 

We currently sell all our packages via Canada Post. We only get 5% off the usual price. However, we can send packages below 250g for only $3.95 to the U.S. and packages below 500g for only $4.99. If i send such a small package within Canada it costs about $7.99... If a package is above 1kg and goes to the U.S. it gets pretty expensive as well...

 

The only problem with Canada Post is that with these rates you don't get a tracking number. Try to recover a lost package... forget it. As far as I'm concerned, their small packet service is useless for commercial shipping. It would be fine for sending something to a friend but not to a customer. In the past month, I had multiple complaints of packages tacking 3-4 weeks and a few lost packages as well. The next best thing is expedited service, but that raises the price to over $13. The tracking is not even that great either... doesn't really tell you where the packages are in transit. If any other Canadian has other solutions for shipping, I'd really like to hear about them.

 

Cheers!

[avail1now]

Excellant Thread. Great Ideas, here are some observations.

 

UPS charges the highest published rate amongst the top four (USPS, UPS, FEDEX, DHL)

15% off published rate is about the highest discount observed for US Ground shipment due to lower margins.

Between 1-3 lbs, USPS rate is lower than UPS, FEDEX, and DHL published rates with residential surcharge

4 lbs and Greater, FEDEX and DHL published rate is lower rates than USPS. At 6 lbs, UPS published rate becomes competitive.

30-50% discount exist only for the expensive express and next day air service.

 

If you 25 or more routine orders/week domestic shipping USA, each order weighing more than 13 oz, and you are paying published rates. Contact me here for discounts.

[Guest]

canada post are ridiculous when it comes to pricing and service. you do NOT get what you pay for!

 

overpriced, slow and they have a high tendency to lose stuff.

 

when a large majority of your parcels are considered small, they're making it difficult for you to be competitive when it comes to shipping rates. (canada post rates GO UP (again!) january 15th, 2007! - expect nothing short of unbelievably CRAPPY service for your hard-earned dollars)

 

95% of the complaints i receive on my site are due to the expensive shipping costs, which i have no choice but to offer!

 

their measley 5-8% discounts are only valid if you use expedited, express (canada or usa only) or ship a PARCEL inside canada (not a letter / light packet) - this does NOTHING to ease the ridiculous costs of overseas shipments.

 

i've never lost so many packages than i have though canada post's expedited!!

when you file a claim, their tracking number is no longer a tracking number, it's a "delivery confirmation"

 

 

i've contacted ups and canpar to see if i can get better rates, but seeing as a large majory of my packets are of the smaller kind, i don't hold much hope.

[Guest]

more routine orders/week domestic shipping USA, each order weighing more than 13 oz, and you are paying published rates. Contact me here for discounts.

 

what kind of spam is this? you aren't offering a shipping service or anything on your website, looks like a bunch of pills <_<

[BigWilly]

what kind of spam is this? you aren't offering a shipping service or anything on your website, looks like a bunch of pills <_<

 

That's why you're supposed to contact him ;)

[jenny2005]

If you join the embroidery trade association you get huge discounts on Fed Ex rates.

 

I don't have anything to do with ETA or embroidery, but joined and I get terrific FE rates now.

 

Hi, I am very interested in how much discount you can get with ETA association, do you pay the yearly fee of $20, and the $195 fee (Sales: $0-$100,000 ($195 dues)), the $195 is just one time right, and after that would be $20 a year, right? Is it easy to get approval?

 

Thanks a bunch,

 

-Jenny2005

[Guest]

That's why you're supposed to contact him ;)

contacting a guy selling pills doesn't seem like the easiest way to get discounted shipping rates, or am i missing something?

[foridic]

Is there anyone here who gets really great UPS or Fedex Ground rates?

 

These are the rates I can get now:

 

Ground Domestic:

1-5lbs 20%

6-10lbs 22%

11-25lbs 25%

26-150lbs 30%

 

International:

40%

 

If I pay with Amex, then I would get an additional 5% off the final bill.

 

Can anyone here get better? Out of curiosity, how much $ volume/month would you have to do to get the above discount?

 

I wish there was a legal way of reselling my rates!

 

mike

[Guest]

foridic, the % off is pretty similar, though i was quoted from ups in $ amount

 

a weekly threshold.. basically i'd have to spend over $700 a week in shipping to get a mere 30% off (and that's their MAXIMUM discount), which, would be excellent... if they weren't so freaking expensive for small packages to begin with.

 

i could meet that and then some, but the mass majority of my packages go for an average of $5 via canada post, which would be a minimum of $8 with ups.. my shipping rates (to my customers) are already through the roof, i cannot raise them.

 

the $3 difference doesn't seem like a lot, but long term it's outrageous.

still searching for better offers :(

[BigWilly]

foridic, the % off is pretty similar, though i was quoted from ups in $ amount

 

a weekly threshold.. basically i'd have to spend over $700 a week in shipping to get a mere 30% off (and that's their MAXIMUM discount), which, would be excellent... if they weren't so freaking expensive for small packages to begin with.

 

i could meet that and then some, but the mass majority of my packages go for an average of $5 via canada post, which would be a minimum of $8 with ups.. my shipping rates (to my customers) are already through the roof, i cannot raise them.

 

the $3 difference doesn't seem like a lot, but long term it's outrageous.

still searching for better offers :(

 

I searched and asked everywhere.... there is just no better option than Canada Post. I tried Fedex a couple of times but they are slower and more expensive ($4.00 for rural residential deliveries!!!) than CP

[Guest]

how large were the packages you sent for $4? for a parcel leaving canada, that is a pretty good rate based upon what i'm dealing with, with canada post.

 

somebody out there must have a solution. there are major mailorders and corporations from canada that DO NOT use canada post, what's their secret?!

 

 

slightly offtopic, but i still cannot believe we (in canada) are going to be paying HIGHER POSTAGE AGAIN! in january!! this weeps me until no end. it's becoming increasingly difficult to compete with the american market, because usps is better by tenfold. and then some!

[BigWilly]

how large were the packages you sent for $4? for a parcel leaving canada, that is a pretty good rate based upon what i'm dealing with, with canada post.

 

somebody out there must have a solution. there are major mailorders and corporations from canada that DO NOT use canada post, what's their secret?!

slightly offtopic, but i still cannot believe we (in canada) are going to be paying HIGHER POSTAGE AGAIN! in january!! this weeps me until no end. it's becoming increasingly difficult to compete with the american market, because usps is better by tenfold. and then some!

 

The $4.00 is what I had to pay extra (rural residential fee) and that's why it made it more expensive than CP. I guess larger companies just get great rates because lets say futureshop calls fedex and asks for good rates, they give them REALLY great rates because otherwise they go with UPS or DHL. They probably don't care that much about small companies.

[Guest]

what's the extra fee for? are they uninterested in delivering to rural areas? bizarre.

 

They probably don't care that much about small companies.

i think that goes for any shipper or courier. though the amount of amazing discounts the big guys get, their profit margin is probably significantly lower than if they had taken a few shipments from a bunch of independent businesses at a slightly higher rate.

[FMX]

For shippers located in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa. I found this post while googling "ups canada 2007 rates". As per the rules of your forum I can not tell you who I am, but can tell you that there are substantial discounts available with ups resellers in the cities mentioned above. UPS reseller being an International Courier company that ships volume through UPS and receives a large discount. The largest discount are usually available on express shipment to the U.S. or Overseas. Canada Post will usually be the cheapest for small shipments that are not time sensitive and do not require tracking.

[Guest]

As per the rules of your forum I can not tell you who I am

 

Huh?

[MonsterMaxx]

For FedEx the best rates I've been able to find are by joining the Embroidery Trade Association.

International 56%

Overnight 48%

3 Day 34%

Ground 15-20% (there's a split at 15lbs)

and so on.

 

The association costs like $150/yr but is well worth it.

 

Downside is that we have CAUGHT FE overbilling - hand in the cookie jar. I'm not talking pennies here either, over a two year period we are talking almost $6k. This has degraded into a big fight with them and I'm now leaving them and taking my $50k/yr to UPS. But haven't found a good association to join with them yet.

We started a new product this year which has caused us to use the ground side of their company and it has been just about the worst experience I've had with a freight company.

I will say that the Express side of their company does a great job of carrying packages, but ground leaves a lot to be desired.

 

You also need to watch for 'surcharges' from FE. These never come up on a rate quote, but these surcharged can more than double the shipping. FE makes it very difficult to be fair with your customers and not screw yourself in the process.

 

Getting UPS account reps out here has not been fun and they can't seem to put a good package together. I need to find an association like ETA to join that gets me UPS discounts like I got with FE.

Any suggestions would be appriciated.

[walkman]

FWIW, I followed up with Unishippers. The sales rep said they were really geared towards offering good deals on next day deliveries. He said that he would really just be saving pennies on DHL gound shipments.

[austinproj]

Downside is that we have CAUGHT FE overbilling -

 

Yup, I have hear they do that. How were they doing that to you Monstermaxx? I am nervously entering into an arrangement with FE after over a decade with USPS and UPS...

 

Thanks,

 

JL

[cali99boy]

For FedEx the best rates I've been able to find are by joining the Embroidery Trade Association.

International 56%

Overnight 48%

3 Day 34%

Ground 15-20% (there's a split at 15lbs)

and so on.

 

The association costs like $150/yr but is well worth it.

Do you happen to know if the Ground 15-20% applies to Home Delivery services? I pretty much only need Home Delivery discounts since I ship primarily by that option. What exactly is the tier rates? 1-10lbs 5% 10-40lb 10%, etc.

[Jog028]

I manage a computer parts business. In the past we've used both UPS and FEDEX and after speaking to both reps felt like I was pretty much lied to about rates. After receiving my first invoice the numbers were nothing like I imagined. I continually sorted out the problems and probably dealt with Fedex twice a week to clear up all invoicing problems until a UNISHIPPERS representative stopped by presenting the idea of cheaper rates through DHL. I honestly didn't know much about DHL. Did my research and found out they are huge in Germany and are moving their services to the US.. They produce more revenue then both UPS and FEDEX. Anyway long story short... UNISHIPPERS saved me like $7.00 on my express packages per move and close to $14 on my international.. I havent had any problems at all with them and their service is sometimes better then UPS'S... if you guys want my rep's name send me a message and I will shoot it your way.

[Jog028]

Do you happen to know if the Ground 15-20% applies to Home Delivery services? I pretty much only need Home Delivery discounts since I ship primarily by that option. What exactly is the tier rates? 1-10lbs 5% 10-40lb 10%, etc.

 

Hey call Unishippers... My rep has saved me like 20% on my home deliveries..

[GRE]

--UNISHIPPERS sounds like a good choice. I also know of another company called Agistix (www.agistix.com) that has an automated reverse-bidding tool for heavy-freight packaging that can cut shipping costs from 15-30%. Customers put their shipments up for bid and then choose the best bid from a pool of forty carriers (the bids can be requested for full or less-than-truckload shipments). This process is extremely profitable for customers because it encourages carriers to charge competitive prices in order to win the bid.

[cali99boy]

thanks guys, i'll look into both of those :thumbsup:

[jared999]

We ship about 25 packages per week 2-5 lbs each by ground. Years ago we had a great contract with Airborne Express and a great sales rep. What I loved about their company was that even at 3am calling their main 800 line you would get a live person in the US right away (no voicemail system). We were Grandfathered in to DHL, but things started to go down hill. Average delivery time for us (shipping from Los Angeles to mostly the South and East Coast) increased by over a day, and we were having significantly more lost packages, showing up weeks or months later (or never).

 

They did Grandfather in our core shipping rates, but they started charging for our twice a week pickup ($7), and continued to raise residential delivery and extended service area delivery fees. We also lost our sales rep, and got assigned new reps so fast we didn't even bother to keep in touch.

 

Two years ago, we were getting sick of DHL's price increases, we were spending more on fees on our average package than core shipping. I wanted to see if we could get a reduced residential and extended service area fee, so I called our last rep and got a message that she was no longer with DHL, it said to call another extention for the woman who had taken over for her. I called that extention and got the voicemail for a man. I left several messages, and weeks later got a call back that all three of them had left DHL, I was refered to call the main number to get a new rep.

 

I called the main number and was told that we did not quality for a personal rep, because our monthly bill was $450, and a $500 minimum was required. I explained that it was not $450, it was over $1000 with all the fees, but he said they only count core shipping.

 

I looked into UPS (and found them to be too expensive) and Fedex. A fedex rep really tried hard to work with me, but the fees were just as bad as DHL, and the core shipping was higher than our contract.

 

I ended up moving us to Priority Mail for our 2-5 lb packages. We still ship very heavy (30+lbs) packages with DHL ground. We have been very satisfied with Priority Mail. We pay ground rates for air service and never pay residential or extended delivery area fees, also shipping to a PO box is a nice option to have. Priority Mail does not include insurance, but we have 3rd party coverage for which we pay a nominal flat monthly rate. The recent rate hikes have hurt us, especially when shipping to the West Coast (we are now based in Pittsburgh,PA).

 

Anyone have any ideas about negotiating with UPS, Fedex, or DHL about residential and extended service area fees? (Because of the nature of our business we sell mostly to rural areas).

 

Thanks,

 

Jared