OK, I agree this is not a sexy topic.  How about, “Save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year!”?

Our research to compare other vendors against our current logistics (freight) vendor began by identifying 13 logistics companies who transport mail to postal facilities across the country.  After receiving responses to our Requests For Information we boiled the number down to 8, to whom we sent a Request For Quote.

To each we sent 3 mail.dat files containing postal presorted mailing lists of various quantities and various mail piece dimensions.  We wanted to know their freight quotes for the Less Than Truckload (LTL) method of delivery, and their quotes to “Consolidate” our client’s mail with other mail they deliver for their clients.  Of course, we don’t make the decision between LTL and Consolidated on our own.  This is always our client’s decision.

The results were very interesting!  LTL freight costs on mailing #1 had a range of $3,517 between the highest quote to the lowest.  LTL freight quotes on mailing #2 had a range of $2,222.  LTL freight quotes for file #3 had a range of $4,359.  Quite a difference between vendors!  We were delighted to discover our vendor was the lowest on two of the three jobs and next to lowest on the third job.

But wait, there’s more!  The differences between LTL rates and Consolidation rates were pretty dramatic.  The most dramatic was a savings of $9,167, a savings of 65%.

So, what’s the difference in service?  Well, as you might imagine consolidating mail takes a bit of time, essentially doubling the number of days it takes to get to a postal facility.  For example, transportation to San Francisco, CA via LTL takes 4 days, whereas Consolidation takes between 8-10 days.  However, though it takes longer and though we can pinpoint a specific day with LTL, we can still achieve entry of the mail into these distant postal facilities within a 2-3 day targeted range.

If a client mailed 20 mailings per year with an average freight savings of $9,000 the annual savings would be in the neighborhood of $180,000!  Consequently, we’re seeing a growing number of large retailers taking advantage of Consolidation simply by planning the additional time needed for transportation of their mail to the destination postal facilities.  A hundred thousand saved is…well, you know the rest!

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