Shipping 2009 Blog

Archive for the ‘Agents’ Category

Car transporters, those long double-decker trucks with nine or ten cars tilted at odd angles that deliver new vehicles to dealers.

If you are moving thousands of miles, across the country perhaps, you can pay a car transporting company to move your three or four family vehicles. They move them in a similar way to the way a courier company moves parcels, changing car transporters, as it moves across the country.

This option is especially useful if your family has two or more vehicles to transport. Try to imagine the alternatives. The other ways of moving your vehicles include a convoy of cars, vans, recreational vehicles and bikes, or one person travelling backwards and forwards for two weeks and staying in hotels, using gas and putting a lot of miles on each vehicle.

The companies in this market may use smaller trucks than the dealer delivery ones, but the principle is the same.

On the large nine car transporters the loads are now planned by special computer software to get more cars onto each load. The software knows the dimensions of each model and can calculate what angle each can be raised to, creating just enough space for another car. That is why you see cars tilted down over the front of the cab, or up at angles on the lower deck. Older car transporters, without all these facilities are still around, but are used mainly on short delivery routes, perhaps to transfer cars between dealers or to an auction.

The more cars on each load the more competitive the company can be in quoting for delivery to distant cities and they may combine your vehicles with those of other people moving to the same area. You will get a better deal if you are prepared to do let them take longer, allowing more time to get a full load together.

Along for the Ride

The coffee in the cup in front of me is a creamy, caramel-colored lifesaver. A waitress, (Jan, by the name printed on her tag) tilted the carafe towards my cup as if to ask if I needed a refill. I covered my cup with my hand. I had it just the way I liked it and topping it off would make the combination of coffee, creamer, and sugar off balance. I don’t know about the other diners in this mellow, out-of-the way coffee shop, but I don’t like coffee straight out of the pot, a bitter black concoction more apt to strip paint than provide warmth and that little jolt of energy, a jolt that I so desperately needed this morning. Last night had been the longest night of my lifebut strangely enough, it was possibly the best night of my life.

I work for a package delivery service. It doesn’t pay much and the work sometimes is harder than what the pay is worth. It gets especially busy this time of year, with all our clients almost tripling their demand for on-time shipping. Why must they wait until December to finally get their act together? It really would help if we knew ahead of time what we were shipping and where we were delivering it to. It would really help if we had the shipping order in our hands at least by October, but because of others’ procrastinations, our boss doesn’t give us our orders until it is almost too late. And it would really help if we didn’t try to ship all our orders in one night.

At the root of it all, we like to blame it on the list of customers itself. I can always depend on having a job to do, but you can never tell how the list is going to change. There are always some clients who, for one reason or another, choose not to ship this year. Some are taken off of the list for non-compliance with the shipping agent’s stringent rules. Yet, others are put on the list when they make an order for the first time. Our boss, who is the main person in charge of the list, has a team of helpers who help with the ongoing task of maintaining the list, gleaning information from customers’ wishes in order to fulfill their shipping requests in a timely manner. Even with that team, the upkeep is overwhelming.

The end of this year was particularly hard for me. I have worked for the same company for let’s seewell, as long as I can remember I’ve held the same job. My parents worked for this same company until their retirement. I was still a few years away from employment at the time, but I was already being taught the

What is Drop Shipping? Drop shipping can be a very effective and simple way to get involved in ecommerce. Many established online merchants are now turning to drop shipping as a method for minimizing stock on hand, decreasing overall shipping costs.

Drop shipping allows web site owners to send single/low quantity unit orders gathered on their web sites to manufacturers, or major warehouses, who in turn “drop ship” the items directly to the customers.

What are the Advantages of Drop Shipping?

- Because a warehousing company can buy in huge volumes, they will also be able to offer you the best prices on products and shipping, which will return a greater profit to you.
- There’s no capital investment and no need to invest in inventory.
- Using drop shipping allows you great flexibility in terms of product range – promote a dozen items or promote a thousand!
- Instead of worrying about inventory and delivery, you get to focus on listening to the market and discovering the products your visitors you want.

What Do I Need to Know to Select a Drop Shipper?

Many companies will have an interest in teaming up with you in a drop shipping arrangement as it’s an easy way for them to generate extra revenue, but there’s a number of points to consider and things to look out for:

Pricing Points

Don’t accept that the first drop shipper you come across unless they are willing to provide you a “Best Price Guarantee.”

Drop Ship Fees and Charges

Some companies will have a handling fee over and above freight costs – it’s important to know all the costs involved so you can calculate your profit margins accurately.

Shipping

Are they using small private shipping companies or UPS? Will they ship internationally? You’ll want to be sure that their shipping methods will ensure your clients recieve their orders in one piece.

Also, keep in mind that you may need a specific type of shopping cart in order to handle drop shipping. Many shopping carts only allow for one “ship from” zip code in the configuration for freight calculations. If you are dealing with a number of drop-shippers you may have dozens of point-of-origin zip codes – and this can be a real headache if freight is based on distance.

Accounts

Will the drop shipping company automatically debit your credit card on each order you submit, or can you get monthly payment terms? When you are starting out with a company, they are unlikely to offer credit, but it’s good to check if this will be possible once you’ve established credibility.

Support, Returns, and Refunds

The last thing you’ll want is to be caught up in a nasty situation where you have a number of returns – and have to cover the bill. Ask the drop shipping company about their return policy, what kind of support they’ll offer you for their products and about any guarantees associated with their products – and get it in writing.

Credibility

How long has the company been around for? Do they respond to your requests for information rapidly and professionally? Young companies have the habit of going belly up quickly, or growing too rapidly and as a consequence basic good customer service suffers.

How Do I Get Started in Drop Shipping?

It’s fairly simple:

- Set up a web site that includes a Shopping Cart and credit card processing facilities, or setup an eBay or other auction account.
- Find suppliers of products you wish to sell that incorporate drop shipping as a business method.
- Open an account with them.
- Gather content and images relating to the products you’ve chosen, incorporate them on your site and shopping cart.
- Collect the order and payment from your site.
- Provide the supplier with the customer details.
- The supplier then bills you at the special price you have agreed upon; fulfills the order and sends it to your client – in most cases with labels referring to your business/web site instead of the company.

To Your Wholesale Drop Shipping Success!

I have explained in previous articles, that if something goes wrong with your export or import shipment and it is lost or damaged during the international transport movement, you are unlikely to be eligible to receive the full value of the goods from your carrier. The freight company will normally only pay compensation if they have been proven to be at fault. In addition, their liability to pay compensation is limited according to International conventions (for example the CMR Convention for road freight) and their standard trading conditions.

The best way to make sure that you can recover the actual value of the goods damaged or lost whilst they are being transported is to arrange specialist ‘goods in transit’ insurance. As with house and buildings insurance, you pay a premium and this will enable you to make a claim when you need to.

It’s easy enough to find insurance for your house and contents – we are constantly being bombarded with advertisements advising us to use comparison websites to get the best deal for all our personal insurance requirements. However, it’s not so easy with ‘goods in transit’ insurance; in order to obtain the best kind of cover for your particular requirements, you need to find a broker who specialises in this type of insurance.

But this may not be a worthwhile option if you only have a small number of international shipments per year, or if you simply do not have time to do the research. That is when your freight forwarder can help you.

Many reputable shipping companies are able to offer ‘goods in transit’ insurance on a ‘per shipment’ basis using their own open cover policy. This usually means that you pay a small premium. The premium is based on the CIF (Cost Insurance and Freight) value of the goods and the risk profile of the geographical locations relevant to the movement. The CIF value is made up of the value of the goods, plus the freight plus ten per cent.

The shipping company can quote you for this when they give you a price for the freight movement. The Freight company will issue you with a Certificate of Insurance, which you will have to produce should you to need to make a claim. When marine insurance cover has been taken out, the cargo owner only needs to have evidence of loss to make a claim, whereas to make a liability claim against the carrier it must be proven that the carrier was at fault.

You will need to confirm your instruction to insure in writing prior to the import or export shipment commencing, but this can easily be done by email.

To summarise, it’s always advisable to ask shipping companies to quote for goods in transit insurance if you do not have your own annual goods in transit policy. In that way, you can claim for the full value of the goods and the value of the freight invoice if the goods have been lost, rather than settling for limited liability compensation.

If you are going to be moving or taking a trip somewhere and you simply cannot stomach the thought of leaving your beloved motorcycle behind, then you should consider finding a good motorcycle shipping service company that will be able to provide you with the extremely convenient service of having to transport you motorcycle to thatever place that you are going to. When it comes to trying to find the perfect motorcycle shipping service company you should try to first do a lot of research on them.

1. Quality Preceeds Everything

You should definitely look for a reputable motorcycle shipping service companies in the business since they are the ones who will most likely not steal your motorcycle away from you. You don’t want to end up skimping on price and then have to pay more later because your motorcycle was damaged in transit. Also, beware of fake motorcycle shipping companies who will take your motorcycle and you will never hear from them again. Be weary of cheap rates.

2. Shop Around

A popular motorcycle shipping service is really not that hard to find, with the various internet websites that offers people detailed lists for auto transport as well as motorcycle shipping companies, it really is pretty easy to land yourself a good and reputable motorcycle shipping company who will not run off with your precious motorcycle as well as not charge you with skyrocketing prices for the motorcycle shipping service that they offer.

3. Know What You’re Paying For

When it comes to actually acquiring the services of a motorcycle shipping service business, you need to be able to make sure that you have all the details that concerns the motorcycle shipping transaction that you will be having. Contrary to popular belief, there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be done from informing the motorcycle company of the exact location where you need your beloved motorcycle to be delivered, the exact time and the exact date of course and what kind of motorcycle do you have and basically just everything that concerns about your motorcycle will be valued information for the motorcycle shipping service company.

4. Provide Accurate Information

The motorcycle shipping company will be heavily reliant on the information that you will give to them as this will be the basis on how they will price your transaction and if it’s possible that your desired time and date of delivery will be met by the motorcycle shipping service company. The motorcycle shipping company will then be able to give you a good assessment of how much it will cost you to actually ship your motorcycle to a place like Germany or Milwaukee or even Hawaii.

The bottom line is that when it comes to motorcycle shipping there would always be a hit or miss chance when trying to find the best motorcycle shipping service company in your area, however since you have now been warned to always proceed with caution, you should be able to now think ahead when it comes to trying to find out that motorcycle shipping service company you will entrust your beloved motorcycle to. The internet is actually a great source of information on these motorcycle shipping companies, they will be able to guide you in having to acquire the information that you need so that you will be able to make the right decision when it comes to motorcycle shipping service companies.