How to Reduce Shipping Costs

DIM weight… wait, what? Peak surcharges, when? If you’re a company that ships goods, it can often feel like you’re just rolling the dice and hoping for the best when it comes to avoiding overcharges. Have no fear, lady luck is with you — and so is Ernest! We’ve got your back with these failsafe ways to build cost-efficiency into your packaging from the ground up and reduce shipping costs.

KNOW YOUR DIM WEIGHT

When you travel by air, you know that you’re in for some pricy upcharges if your luggage is big and weighty. That’s why you pack light and use as small a suitcase as possible. The same principles go for shipping packages.

When your package is getting prepared for shipping, two factors determine how much you’ll pay: its weight and its size. Physical weight is easy enough to calculate on your own with a scale, but dimensional weight uses an equation that many aren’t privy to.

First, find the volume of your package by multiplying its length, width and height. Divide the product by 139, which is the figure currently used by major shipping companies in 2018. If the number you get is greater than the weight of your package, you’ll be paying more to ship it.

You could do all that math yourself… or you could let Ernest crunch the numbers for you. Download our DIMCalc app in the iOS App Store — just enter your package’s physical dimensions, and we’ll give you its dimensional weight so you know which figure you’ll be paying for.

BUILD A BETTER PACKAGE

Source reduction is your ticket to reducing both the size and weight of your package. Extraneous materials — whether it’s a box that’s too large or an inner that’s too bulky — add to the dimensional and physical weight of your package, and drive shipping costs up.  Ernest determines which materials are pulling their weight and which you should replace with a more cost-efficient solution.

Constructing a leaner, greener package can have the added benefit of preventing damage to your product. Returns cost you money, plain and simple, and better packaging can prevent costly mishaps during transit. Whether the solution to your protective packaging is simple or complex, Ernest has your back. When our client Boman Kemp needed to mitigate shipping damage to their window well products, Ernest rose to the challenge.

If shipping prices seem out of your hands, rest assured Ernest is working hard to bring you the control you deserve. Together we can reduce your shipping costs and build a better packaging solution for your unique needs.