Shipping costs vary quite a bit from place to place, from carrier to carrier, or even from time to time.
In this section, we will go over what makes a shipping price, the types of freight quotes, and why freight quotes expire.
First, we’ll start off with what makes a shipping price.
On a shipping invoice, you can generally see a price breakdown, and it contains the base price, the fuel surcharge of roughly 15% (which varies, depending on the current fuel price) accessorial charges such as residential/limited access pickups or deliveries, tailgates, etc. For Canadian shippers, there are taxes to top it all off, and they also vary from province to province.
The types of freight quotes are generally divided into two categories — standard and dynamic.
Standard Pricing
Standard freight quotes are carriers’ prices for their standard lanes.
For instance, if a carrier services a lane Toronto – Vancouver regularly they will have a baseline fee to which additional charges will be added based on the size, weight, and requirements of the shipment.
With Freightera specifically, these rates are discounted due to the amount of volume we are able to provide to our carrier partners. That means that these prices are generally pretty competitive and don’t fluctuate much.
This type of quote, in most cases, lasts for 30 days. After that, the fluctuation in fuel prices is considered large enough to affect the quote.
Dynamic Pricing
Dynamic pricing takes a different approach.
Whereas standard pricing is steady and doesn’t change by too much throughout time, dynamic pricing can vary greatly based on the availability and conditions for a given lane.
This means that pricing can range from extremely cheap to extremely expensive within a single week.
This pricing method allows carriers to be highly competitive when demand is low, and to manage their workload by increasing pricing when demand goes up.
When getting your freight quote, you want to make sure that you are as accurate as possible with the information you’re providing. The type of pricing you’re receiving is indicated on the Freightera website once a quote is generated.
Regardless of the type of rate you’re getting, it can always be adjusted by the carrier if the information entered does not reflect the actual shipment.
That is why you want to make sure to indicate all of the information about your shipment, as well as any additional services you may require ahead of time.
For shipments with Freightera in particular, it is likely that your special handling charges will be cheaper if included in the quote beforehand since carriers may choose to charge based on their default rate tariff if charges are added post-pickup.