UNPACKING FAST FULFILLMENT AND DELIVERY
5 WAYS TO MANAGE EXPEDITED COSTS The costs of expediting can quickly add up. The following steps can help to rein in the expense: 1. Consider the product and customer. If a shipment doesn’t absolutely need to be there quickly, consider a slower delivery service that costs less. This is a basic step, but one that’s easy to overlook when trying to move goods out the door. 2. Consolidate shipments. Using expedited shipping on a consolidated group of parcels can reduce duplicate handling, packaging, and transportation costs, says Preston Pickett, owner and CEO of Get ERR Done Courier Service. 3. Forecast demand as accurately as possible. Use historical data, market trends, and customer insights to predict delivery needs ahead of time, Pickett says. This helps when scheduling labor, planning routes, and allocating resources, reducing waste and controlling costs. 4. Compare the cost and speed of ground versus air delivery options. A package moving second-day air may cost more and arrive no sooner than a package traveling over-the-road, if, for instance, a ground carrier can engage sleeper teams and trucks to move the cargo overnight, says Tim Binkis of ICC Logistics Services. 5. Also compare the delivery speed and prices of expedited services against less-than-truckload (LTL) services. Currently, some LTL rates have increased significantly, while many expeditors’ rates have remained largely unchanged, says Mike McCallum, president of Rydex Freight Systems and TEANA vice president. As a result, an expeditor’s rates may be competitive or less than those of an LTL carrier.
Expedited companies such as UPS can handle immense daily volume, which allows their logistics networks to isolate and prioritize more time-sensitive freight and meet tight delivery windows.
of carrying additional inventory, often within warehouses, against the bene ts of shorter delivery timeframes. In completing these calculations, shippers should analyze where most of their orders come from and then map delivery times from potential warehouse locations. Ideally, they can position inventory close to high-volume customer zones. Then, they may want to use third- party ful llment partners for other regions. It also makes sense to check how the company offering expedited solutions will hurry your package along, says Chris White, vice president of relations with USKO, a provider of logistics services, as well as president of The Expedite Association of North America. If the cargo is high value, it may pay to order an exclusive delivery truck. That way, the driver won’t have to make multiple stops, which can boost the likelihood of damage, White says. You’ll also want to con rm whether the shipment will begin its trip the moment it’s handed to the provider, or if there will be a time lag before it begins its journey. One technology that is proving its value in expedited shipping is predictive labeling, Chowdhary says. Predictive shipping labels are part of a larger supply
chain strategy of predictive logistics, which uses arti cial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to forecast demand and optimize shipping processes and inventory placement. Rather than generate a label after an order is placed, predictive systems use historical and real-time performance data to select the optimal carrier for each shipment based on factors such as cost, speed, and reliability. Consider the Options The rise of regional transportation providers in the United States and other parts of the world allows shippers to assemble networks of carriers that together can offer coverage across a country, Langston says. Savvy regional logistics operators often can leverage economies of scale in their local markets, which can translate to lower rates for shippers. Ultimately, the goal is to nd the “sweet spot” by identifying the carriers and services that meet the delivery and cost goals for each product type and destination, Rausch says. For instance, high-value items such as cell phones may warrant express services, while standard delivery might be ne for
36 Inbound Logistics • November 2025
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