Key Points:
- The freight provider you use can help you get the perfect and competitive quotes
- Providing the accurate details of your shipment will give to an edge
- Easyship’s optimized tools can help you reduce shipping costs and errors
Advanced technology and logistic solutions have made it easy for businesses to get their freight in motion and obtain freight quotes seamlessly. Shippers must understand that getting the best international quote goes beyond just typing in figures of a shipment's dimensions.
To get the most from an optimized shipping software, there are several things to consider. This blog post will share the essential steps to getting the best international freight quote before your next shipment.
Table of Contents
Use the Right Resources
You can rely on available resources to help you get the best and most accurate quotes. Since some of these freight providers offer freight quotes at no cost, you can compare them to find the cheapest freight costs. Below are the various resources with relevant information to help you make a choice.
- Freight brokers: They serve as middlemen between shippers and freight companies and are known to help businesses find the perfect carrier at the most competitive.
- Online exchange website: Also referred to as freight exchange, an online exchange website is like a community that allows companies to select their preferred freight from a database.
- Independent, Nationwide, or Regional Carrier: Here, businesses choose to bypass any intermediary and work directly with a carrier.
- Freight expeditors: persons or agents organizing freight shipping and everything that goes between. Their services also cover customs documentation and transportation of goods from the producer to the consumer.
By comparing the quotes of these available resources, you get to know the best service that will provide your business with the most competitive freight rates.
Related post: Your Guide To Freight Shipping
Provide Accurate Shipping Details
Getting your shipping details intact and accurate is a crucial step to getting the best international freight quotes.
Even with the best resources, you can pay more if your figures are inaccurate. Inputting details manually can seem like a lot of work, but with Easyship's automated software, you can save time. Easyship allows you to manage your shipment and set automation based on the shipping details. Regardless, here is a couple more information you should prepare:
- Handling unit type (pallets, crates, barrels, reels, boxes, etc.)
- Description of goods
- Weight of shipment
- Shipment size
- Full-truck-load (FTL) or less-than-truck (LTL)
- Origin and destination of freight
- Delivery speed
- Value
All these details help your freight provider come up with accurate quotes. The quote you get is always determined by the details you provide, so you must verify the details before forwarding them.
Book & Schedule Your Shipment
If you have gotten a quote for your shipment, you are ready for the last step. The process of booking or scheduling your shipment is dependent on the freight provider that you have chosen to use. Regardless, you need to follow through with the following steps:
- Do the paperwork
- Schedule the pick-up date to determine the transit time
- Meet your driver
Easyship can help simplify this final lap by providing you access to pre-filled customs forms and estimated duties and taxes for your international shipment. You can also use the shipping calculator to get available carriers and delivery lead times.
The Cheapest International Freight Shipping Rates with Easyship
International freight shipping rates are not challenging to get. If you follow the best steps, you will get the best quotes for shipping. It all comes down to the resources you choose to use, whether freight brokers, the online exchange, regional brokers, or freight expeditors.
When you choose the best one depending on your shipping needs, the responsibility of getting a competitive quote rests on you. You must provide accurate figures to your freight provider or pay more than you should.
You don't have to make errors with freight rates, and that is why you should use Easyship free shipping tools to help you coordinate your international shipping. Easyship offers optimized software that makes cross-border shipping seamless. These tools also come in handy in helping you get international freight quotes whenever and wherever you are:
- Easyship Shipping Rates Calculator: Access high-volume discounts from major couriers. Plus, get instant access to delivery lead times from premium shipping couriers for faster shipping
- Global Fulfillment: Easyship has warehouse partners on four continents so that you can reach your customers all across the world. Plus, Easyship helps scale up fulfillment capabilities without increasing overhead costs
- Duties & Tax Visibility: Easyship works out all duties and taxes for your international shipments so you can handle your international orders with ease. Calculate your duties for overseas shipments here
Ready to ship? Sign up for a FREE Easyship account and create your optimized shipping strategy for international shipping
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