In Part 1, we talked about the surprisingly high cost of freight (and you can believe with gas prices what they have been for the past year or so that those "fuel surcharge clauses" in contracts are in high gear), but we restricted the discussion to everyday carriers. By that term, I mean the carriers like UPS, FED EX, DHL, and the USPS - the kind that the average consumer is likely to know about or even use on a regular basis.
Some vendors have their own delivery trucks. That is a plus in their favor because it is one less factor to worry about when selecting a vendor and hoping for minimal delivery issues.
There is still another freight option out there.
There are hundreds of freight companies, both national and regional, that move truckloads of items around the country every day. Unless you are somehow involved in buying or selling very large items or large volumes of small items you would not even know they exist.
Try this: Go to the Yellow Pages online and look for "freight" or "trucking" in your area. You will be surprised at all the matches.
Buyers (and vendors) can work with many freight companies, obtaining quotes every time or they can contract with a company or two for all their business.
There is another option when dealing with freight companies and that is to use a third party freight manager. See Part 3 for more details.
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