How Combining Your Orders Can Save on Freight
Everyone likes to save money. Especially when you are trying to increase your profit margin. One great way to do this is by combining your orders to save on freight.
While the post office may weigh every package, FedEx charges by box size more often than weight. So being sure that you fill every inch of the box is important when it comes to shipping cost per plant.
Also, sometimes bigger really is better! A box that’s twice as big doesn’t cost twice as much to ship since the charges don’t increase proportionally with the size. As your box size increases, the freight cost per square inch actually decreases. This means a four tray shipment will cost more per tray to ship than an eight tray shipment.
So Give Me An Example
A four tray box going from North Carolina Farms to Atlanta, Georgia, would cost about $34 to ship FedEx 2nd Day. That breaks down to a charge of $8.50 per tray. An eight tray box would cost about $41 to ship FedEx 2nd Day. That comes out to a fee of just a little over $5 per tray. Percentage-wise, that’s a significant cost difference!
On Unrooted Cutting (URC) orders we see even more cost savings as we fill the box. Unrooted orders go FedEx Priority Overnight because of their need to be planted as soon as possible.
Our smallest box holds a minimum order of 600 unrooted cuttings. Shipping that box from North Carolina Farms to Atlanta, Georgia would cost about $36, no matter how many cuttings are in that box. Whether you have 600 or 1200 cuttings in that box, the freight will still be the same.
And what if you could possibly order more? When you double that box size, the price only goes up $4. So you can get twice as many cuttings for just a few more dollars.
Now that you’ve found out how this works, it’s time to think about how you can tweak your order for maximum savings. You can go here to see your freight quote and options for filling your box:
https://ncfarmsinc.com/freightQuote.php
Using Our Freight Quote Tool
After looking at our freight quote tool, you will see that there are different options for how many plants will fit into a box.
For rooted cutting (RC) we typically say eight trays will fit into our largest box, which is 22*24*18. (Impatiens would be a good example of that.) However, in some cases, we can fit ten trays in the box if the plants are typically shorter growers. (Alternanthera would be a good example here.)
Also, taller plants may only fit six trays in that same box. (Cissus is one that takes up a lot of space.) There are even some where we can only fit four trays into our largest box. (Sansaveria, we’re looking at you.) It really all boils down to how tall that liner tray is.
Similarly, URC will vary on how many will fit into each section of the box. While we may be able to get 2,000 Bacopa into a section, that same area may only hold 400 Angel Wing Begonia or 1,000 Lantana. So URC are much harder to estimate without some packing experience.
However, the general rule still holds true. Get as many plants as you can to save on freight.
Want more orders later? Maybe you shouldn’t wait. Buy them all together, and you can save on freight.
