Month: March 2019

The shipping advice we provided in the last posts is relevant to all shipping providers. However, we want to separately address one program that has stood out among the rest and encourage any customers using FedEx services to utilize it: FedEx One Rate.

Through FedEx’s One Rate program, we can ship many of our orders 2^nd day for roughly the same price as, and sometimes even less than, ground shipping. It only applies to shipments that can fit inside the FedEx envelopes and express boxes, but we are able to package large amounts of product in them. One trick we were taught was to use a small box, say 6x6x4, and put that inside the FedEx envelope. This method ships packages valued at less than $100 2^nd day air anywhere in the U.S, including Alaska and Hawaii, for less than $9.50.

We have customers that are requesting ground shipping on their account, but they are not able to take advantage of the cost savings because they have not signed up for it. This is a great program that we would like to see our customers take advantage of so we can use it when they want to ship orders using their own FedEx accounts. We would urge you to talk to your FedEx representative about this program. Even though it only applies to smaller shipments, we can ship products like our blunt needles, fittings, and PTFE tubing with this method and save customers some shipping costs while providing the benefit of shipping 2^nd day. Unfortunately, due to their length, hypodermic tubing and wire cannot be shipped this way unless precision cutting has been performed.

We hope some of these ideas have been helpful. If you want to talk to us about how we can work with you and your organization to be more efficient with some of these costs, please contact us. This is just another way we can be a resource to our customers.

 

In our last post, we shared tips 1-3 for cutting shipping costs. Here are three more tips to consider for future orders:

4) Be flexible with your shipping carrier. Shipping costs depend on size, shape, and weight of the package, along with transit route, time frame, and negotiated rates of your company, and your supplier. When you are ordering from Component Supply, if you do not have your own account with UPS or FedEx, we are willing to determine the most cost-efficient rate depending on when you expect your delivery. So, simply indicate “ground” or “overnight” or “two-day” and leave the research to us to help connect you with the best rate.

5) Ask suppliers to ship from one warehouse when possible. We often purchase from suppliers who have multiple locations. Don’t be afraid to call and ask your supplier to ship from one warehouse if it is possible. We ship everything from our Sparta, TN facility, so this is not something you need to consider with us. But, every one of our suppliers that we request this of has been very helpful and willing.

6) Order shorter if the larger length is not necessary.  Keep in mind that everything over 48” long has a $14 special handling charge from the larger carrier companies. So, if you can accept the product (like hypodermic tubing or straightened wire) in lengths shorter than 48” then you can cut out that fee from the carrier. Remember, any of our 72” wire is also available in 36” lengths and our 60” hypodermic tubing can be sent in 30” lengths.

If you would be performing precision cutting of the material, like most end-users do, consider submitting a request for quote and letting us perform that operation for you to save you production time and shipping costs.

https://componentsupplycompany.com/blog/

The mission of Component Supply is to connect researchers and product designers with the knowledge and components they need to change the world. 

At Component Supply, we pour time and effort into affirming our role as a resource from the perspective of our product offering: comprehensiveness, no/low minimum order quantity, and competitive pricing. However, what often gets overlooked is our effort to understand shipping processes and how they affect our customers’ pricing.

This week, we are dedicating three blog posts to shipping processes because costs associated with shipping is one of our customers’ biggest frustrations. Thanks to Amazon Prime and Walmart, we all tend to get a little antsy when shipping isn’t free. But, FedEx and UPS cannot do their job for free any more than we can. Furthermore, this is industry – business to business, and the expectations are different. But, because we do work closely with our shipping carriers and are constantly looking to make improvements that will impact the pricing and security of delivery, we want to pass along some advice:

1) Purchase for multiple departments, projects, or production lines at once. This may not always work with limitations on how purchase orders are placed and need to be received, but if you can bundle multiple orders into one shipment, you can often greatly reduce shipping costs.

2) Purchase larger volumes less often. Much of the product we supply does not take up much space. If your demand can justify purchasing in larger quantities but fewer times a year, then take advantage of it. We work with numerous customers to lower their shipping costs this way and, in some cases, we can even lower the product costs themselves with discounts for larger volumes.

3) Order more items of similar size or structure at once. If you are buying coils of plastic tubing and also long lengths of straightened wire, you can’t take advantage of efficient, consolidated shipments because those items ship in very different sizes and types of boxes to arrive securely. However, if you can plan further in advance and order larger volumes of similar products at once then more efficient packaging, and therefore lower shipping costs, are available.

Check back tomorrow for three more tips and how to take advantage of capabilities that can reduce your production resources once you’ve brought material in house.