FedEx announced its GRI back in September as it usually does, but now it’s up to companies everywhere to figure out how the changes will affect their parcel shipping costs come January. No one expects the carrier to make it easy, but that doesn’t mean small parcel shippers should simply accept the higher costs.
Again this year, much of the GRI’s focus is on ecommerce companies, especially those shipping residential and large/odd-sized packages. If that’s you, you already know that your costs are driven by the added accessorials and fees FedEx charges on top of your base rates. Enough so that it can make or break your margins or cost you a sale at checkout.
As our recently published GRI Analysis highlights, there are many surcharges that will increase by 10% or more in January that online retailers should be watching. (Access the industry’s most complete analysis of the 2022 FedEx GRI – HERE.)
But knowing which costs are going up is only the beginning of what it takes to fix the problem. Now you need ways to identify where and when it will happen. Looking at your parcel data is the obvious next step, but that may not be enough.
The good news is that auditing your parcel invoices generates a lot of valuable shipping data (you are auditing your invoices, right?). The bad news is most companies are not doing enough with their data. Scanning and sorting invoice details in a spreadsheet is an ineffective way to derive anything useful from it. The changes and increases are complex. Finding “insights” from data that is already weeks or months old is seldom helpful or actionable either. Using your data profitably takes a more sophisticated approach.
Here’s an example every ecommerce shipper should be very wary of. FedEx is changing (and increasing) how its Additional Handling and Oversize surcharges are calculated. Following the lead of UPS, FedEx is now basing these surcharges on the Zone.
Now picture a large spreadsheet. Will you be able to tell how many of your packages were hit with Additional Handling? How many were hit with AH by Zone? How long would it take to figure that out? If you have the right analytics technology, it can take you mere seconds.
The value of being able to see and understand these extra costs is self-evident. The hard part is creating a process to bring them to the surface.
Here’s our suggestion.
TransImpact is offering two powerful (and free) ways that can help you right now. Just sign up for a demo of Parcel Spend Intelligence™ and get a free month of our industry-leading parcel analytics solution, as well as a complete analysis of how your company’s rates will change in January because of the GRI.
Click Here for a demo and one month free.
Remember, the GRIs from FedEx (and the soon-to-come GRIs from UPS) can be minimized or even avoided with the right approach. Pairing the experience of the parcel experts at TransImpact with our Parcel Spend Intelligence technology facilitates attaining that goal. Take the first step and schedule a demo today.