9 Shipping Errors that Could be Costing Your Business Big

Shipping is not an exact science. You do your research, choose the shipping company you think is going to be the best, and hope they get your things where they need to go on time and undamaged. But, so much can go wrong along the way, costing your business a lot of money.

Here are nine shipping errors that might be costing you big bucks.

Delayed Deliveries

The real cost of late deliveries is the loss of customers who don’t want to wait for their goods. You may be forgiven for one delayed shipment, but if it happens regularly, you are in danger of losing customers.

And if one of your shipments is delayed to a customer, it could have a domino effect on the rest of the shipments in that consignment and you could have multiple late deliveries, compounding the problem. If a delivery is too late, even the most loyal of repeat customers might ditch your company if it affects them in a bad way, like if it causes their own projects to be delayed for too long.

Damaged Shipments

Damaged shipments have a huge impact on your brand’s perception and may end up costing you more than what it takes to replace the order or make it right. Even if it’s not your fault at all, your company is likely to feel at least some of the brunt of the customer’s dissatisfaction. You are the one who chose which shipper to go with, after all. Shipments that arrive broken can lead to a broken brand reputation.

Lost Shipments

Shipments are bound to get lost once in a while, especially crossing the ocean where an average of nearly 1,400 containers are lost each year, but if it happens too often, you stand to lose something a lot more valuable than the shipment; customers. As with late shipments, the originating company tends to get blamed when shipments don’t arrive. It’s exacerbated when those shipments, in turn, cause delays in the receiving company’s operations.

Wrong Addresses

If you’re shipping by road, one of the things you might have to worry about is something being delivered to the wrong address. Even though an address should be checked and double checked, shipments can still end up going to the wrong place because they’ve been incorrectly labelled. It’s costly in time and money and you might get charged more for the mix up if the mistake is on your end.

Wrong Carrier Assignments

In a hectic shipping and receiving environment, you may find that consignments get shipped by the wrong type of carrier, which can cost you money. You may accidentally send something by air that would have been better to ship by road, for example. If it’s always shipped by air, it might be that nobody bothers to look if it actually should be. These type of seemingly small errors can add up and cost you money.

Poor Order Consolidation

Are your shipments being delivered in a logical order or are delivery drivers having to backtrack and revisit the same area because of poor planning during loading? Haphazardly shipping loads out with little foresight is a recipe for increased costs and one that is easily manageable.

Inefficient Backorder Management Processes

Sometimes the inefficiencies aren’t in the shipping at all. Sometimes it’s behind the scenes. If you are trying to fill backorders, things can get expensive in a hurry because you are trying to quickly fill orders that have already been placed. If this isn’t done in a logical manner, fees can start to add up quickly.

Fuel Surcharges

Fuel surcharges on an invoice can be contentious since they fluctuate and it’s an expense that is difficult to track. They make invoice validation difficult and are likely responsible for more than a few complaints about invoices.

Duplicate Charges

With invoices coming and going, it can be difficult to keep track of them all and that can lead to some being sent twice. Or, perhaps, a tracking number was used twice. Whatever the case, duplicate charges are costly and a headache to fix. It’s best just to avoid them altogether.

Factor Freight’s Funded-By-Improvement service is an excellent way to investigate potential savings opportunities without immediately incurring an extra expense. If you would like to potentially realize a savings on your logistics of 10-20% and only pay for the service mainly out of the money you save, contact Factor Freight today to inquire about our Funded-By-Improvement program.

Email me at trevorb@factorfreight.com.au, contact me directly on LinkedIn or fill out the Factor Freight contact form.