Cheapest Freight Shipping Options for Shipping Heavy Items

If your business regularly ships heavy goods, it’s paramount that you find the most economical shipping method. Even a small reduction in costs can have a large cumulative effect on your bottom line. 

What shipping option you use largely depends on where you’re sending a load to and from. Here are the cheapest freight shipping options for heavy items. You may need one (most likely truck) or several, depending on your business’s supply chain and distribution.

Container Ship for Overseas

Container ships aren’t the fastest shipping method, but what they lack in expediency they make up for in economy. You won’t find a lower-priced option for moving heavy items between continents, and sometimes across large lakes even within continents. The number of containers that ships can carry, and their manageable operating costs make this a pragmatic choice for overseas shipping.

If your business imports heavy supplies or products from overseas, plan on a container ship. You’ll have to plan ahead since speed isn’t primary. The savings that your business will realize are well-worth planning ahead for — many businesses couldn’t import heavy supplies from overseas without relying on container ships.

Train for Some Overland

Trains are the most used freight shipping method to transport heavy loads over land. They don’t have the scheduling or geographic flexibility of trucks, but they operate much more efficiently. A single gallon of fuel can take a train much farther than it can a truck — and that means shipping costs are much lower.

Using a train will be the cheapest option if your business moves heavy loads substantial distances within the country or continent. For example, an imported load might be transferred from a container ship to a rail car. You should also consider rail if the business has a regular need for shipping heavy supplies between two particular locations.

Truck for Overland

When goods have to be taken somewhere that doesn’t have a train station, a truck is your best choice. Trucks can be used to move loads directly between locations or to take loads to/from train stations.

Trucks aren’t the most fuel-efficient, but they’re still an affordable freight shipping option. They’re the only pragmatic option in many cases.

Your business might send loads that take up entire trailers, or you may use less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping as an economical option when shipments aren’t that large. In either case, trucks will almost certainly be an integral part of your logistics. Expect to both receive and send loads over the road.

Get an Affordable Shipping Solution

If your business needs an affordable shipping solution, contact us at AMR Group for shipping heavy cargo. We have some of the most competitive freight shipping costs.

We’ve been in the freight shipping business for years. We have the expertise and network to help businesses ship all sorts of cargo, including heavy cargo. Our team will work closely with you to develop a custom shipping solution that works for your business’s budget and logistical needs.

What Freight Companies Your Business Should Utilize

Businesses have many shipping options available for moving goods between locations. The post office delivers small parcels to individual addresses, while freight companies move entire shipping containers across oceans. There are several other options between parcel and freight, too. 

Which shipping services your business should use depends on what it’s shipping, how much it’s shipping, and where those shipments are going. Here’s a rundown of the main shipping services you might want to consider.

Parcel Post: Small Packages

Parcel post remains the go-to for most small packages. This includes the post office and its competitors, which all have systems that excel at moving individual boxes between specific addresses. Boxes can be sent to either commercial or residential addresses.

Even if it’s not your business’s main shipping service, you’ll undoubtedly use parcel post when you need to send individual packages. You may even rely exclusively on them if you run a business-to-consumer business where only a few items are purchased with each order.

Less-Than-Truckload: Growing Businesses

Less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping allows your business to take advantage of over-the-road trucks, without paying for a full trailer that you don’t need. Your business pays for the space it uses in a trailer, and goods from other businesses fill up the rest of the space. It’s sharing a tractor-trailer.

LTL shipping is especially useful for growing businesses, which often have shipments that are more than a package but less than a trailer. You can also scale shipments as your business grows. Established businesses might use this shipping method for smaller commercial orders, or orders of specialty supplies.

Truckload: Domestic Commercial Orders

Truckload shipping is similar to LTL shipping but provides slightly better rates. Freight companies only have to make one stop for loading and one for unloading, so they can charge a bit less.

Established businesses with regional or national reach often use truckload shipping. You might rely on it to provide quantity discounts on larger commercial orders that take up a trailer. Your business also will likely want to receive a full trailer of supplies, in order to reduce costs.

Rail: Regular Large Shipments

Rail isn’t as flexible as LTL and truckload shipping, but it’s more economical for regular and large shipments. Trains run much more efficiently than trucks. 

Not all businesses use rail shipping, but it’s helpful when sending regular shipments between business locations. These might be to your business locations, or to a customer that has a large standing order each week or month. Rail is most common in industries such as construction, where the materials are especially large and heavy.

Container Ship: Large International Shipments

For international shipments that cross the Atlantic or Pacific, a container ship is the most efficient. Shipments take a long time, but you can still receive goods so long as your business plans ahead. No other overseas method beats these rates, and both full containers and partial containers are available.

If your business receives inventory from an overseas manufacturer or supplier, the shipments will likely be sent by container ship. Be prepared to have a third-party freight company receive the goods at a domestic port. Fewer businesses in North America send shipments by container ship.

Air: Expedited Shipments

Air is the most expensive shipping option, but it’s also the fastest for regional, national, and international. Your business might occasionally have to send goods by air when there are rush orders. Don’t regularly plan on this option, though.

Freight Companies Handle It All

Assuming your business has multiple shipping needs, you should look for a freight company that offers all of these shipping services (except parcel post). At AMR Group, we combine LTL, truckload, rail, container ship, and air shipping as needed for a comprehensive solution. Contact us today to learn how we can create a customized shipping solution for your business.

How to Find a Shipping Container Company in Las Vegas

Many businesses rely heavily on moving physical goods between locations. Whether you’re moving supplies to a facility, or products from a facility, a shipping container company will likely have the lowest rates for moving large amounts of goods.

Modes of Transport

Make sure the shipping container company you choose provides all the freight transport services your business needs. 

Some shipping container companies may specialize in just container transport. These companies can efficiently transport containers internationally and domestically, often by a combination of water and rail. 

If you’re only receiving containers from overseas and don’t have major domestic shipping needs, then this option might be suitable for you. Most businesses in Las Vegas need to receive and send goods around the country, however, they often don’t always have a container’s worth to send.

Assuming your business needs to transport goods that aren’t a container full, make sure the company you use has other transport options too. This might be via a small rail car, but it’s more likely to be via tractor-trailer. 

Pairing shipping container transport with truck/less-than-truckload transport gives your business the flexibility to send shipments of whatever size that’s needed. You can also access many more locations when truck/LTL shipping is additionally available.

Shipping Rates

Of course, you want a competitively priced shipping container company. Shop around for affordable rates to/from where you’re receiving or sending goods. Some companies are more heavily concentrated in certain regions, and therefore might offer you better rates if you’re only transporting goods within their main region.

Shipping Times

Shipping containers aren’t always the fastest way of moving goods, as this shipping method generally trades-off speed for price. To account for this, make sure you double-check the shipping times of any company you use.

Your shipping times may be in days, weeks, or even months. You should be able to account for this on any received shipments, as you can simply place your order earlier. Confirm that the timeframes will work with any shipments that you’re sending since customers sometimes have faster shipping expectations.

In many cases, a business that offers both shipping container and truck/LTL transport can accommodate different shipping timeframe needs. Containers can be used regularly to keep costs down, while trucks (and perhaps air) can be used as needed for quick turnarounds.

Pickup/Drop-off Location

To make your business logistics easier, find a shipping container company that’ll deliver to and pick up from wherever you need shipments. Most shipping container companies will only go to commercial addresses, but that could be almost any commercial address in the city. Find a company that’ll deliver directly to your business address, to a convention center’s address, or anywhere else that you might need things delivered to.

Get Shipments To and From Las Vegas

If you need to send shipping containers to or from Las Vegas, contact our team at AMR Group. We’ll make sure your goods get wherever you need them to go – on time and at affordable rates. We’re able to take care of whatever freight transport needs your business has.

How Truckload & LTL Shipping Can Grow Your Small Business

Trucks are how businesses move freight to where they need it. While over-the-road freight transport isn’t the only option, it’s the most flexible, affordable, and feasible for small businesses. Whether you’re receiving supplies, making substantial deliveries, or transporting goods across the country for a trade show, truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping is the versatile shipping solution.

Affordable Prices for Small Businesses

Truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping are some of the most affordable freight transport options for small and medium-sized businesses, especially when they’re growing. 

Filling a tractor-trailer is much cheaper than sending large loads with the standard package delivery companies, as those companies are designed to move packages rather than pallets. When many goods are going to the same location, a truck will almost certainly be less than the post office or its main competitors. There’s a reason the big companies ship via truck.

LTL shipping provides the same affordable prices, within a scalable range that small businesses can afford. If your business doesn’t have a complete truckload of goods to send, then it can use only a portion of the trailer. The rest of the space will be filled with other loads that are going to the same area. You’ll only pay for the trailer space you use, even if that’s just a small portion.

The combination of truckload and less-than-truckload is especially beneficial for small businesses that are growing. Send shipments via LTL shipping, until you have enough to ship a full trailer’s worth of goods. Should you continue growing and have 1.5 trailers (or some other portion), then you can use a combination of the two. You can also make adjustments between truckload and LTL as needed if your business is seasonal, or otherwise has a need for varying shipment sizes.

Access to Almost All Locations

Because truckload and less-than-truckload shipping are sent via roads, these methods can get goods anywhere that roads go. Of course, that’s just about everywhere that a small business would need to ship goods.

Some truckload freight transporters might only go to commercial locations since few businesses need to deliver a large amount of goods to personal residences. In the uncommon cases when a pallet or more is needed at a residential address, some freight transports are able to accommodate.

Being able to send goods almost anywhere is a major advantage over some other transport methods. Most notably, trucks afford access to many more locations than trains do. Trucks also don’t require offloading cargo from a railcar, only to move it again to a local address.

Tie-Up Less Capital

When shipments can be sized according to your business’s needs, you don’t have to keep as much on hand. Smaller orders can be placed, and smaller deliveries can be sent. You can have fewer things at your business facility, or in a third-party’s warehouse.

Reducing the amount of supplies and goods that you must keep in stock allows your business to tie up less capital. You don’t have to purchase as much at once, and you don’t have to lease the same amount of storage space. 

The cost savings can ease monthly cash flow challenges if your business struggles. If your business is rapidly growing, you can use the freed-up funds toward whatever is helping your business grow fastest.

Use Truckload & LTL Shipping for Your Business

Is your business growing? Do you find yourself needing larger shipping options than just packages? Use truckload and LTL shipping as you need to and grow your business. Contact us at AMR Group to discuss your business’s specific shipping needs, so we can help set up a customized solution that works well.

Top Shipping Options Offered by Las Vegas Freight Companies

When shipping your products, it’s important for freight companies to deliver your goods on time and in good condition. Understanding some of the most popular shipping practices will help you make sure you’re selecting the best shipping alternative for your freight. Here’s what you need to know about popular shipping solutions offered by freight companies in Las Vegas.

You Can Use Multiple Shipping Methods for More Efficient Shipping Times

If you’re shipping goods internationally or long distances, it’s usually best to utilize multiple shipping methods to expedite your shipments and minimize your shipping expenses. 

For example, air shipping is a fast option, but it tends to cost more than other alternatives. You might reserve air shipping for emergency shipments or perishable products.

 Train or rail shipping is an economical solution that’s easy to use with other shipping methods, like truckload shipping. Truckload shipping is an excellent alternative if you’re shipping bulky or heavy items. 

Using ocean freight companies allows you to move large quantities of goods for an affordable price. Once your goods are back on land, you can use another shipping option to complete the delivery.

A Freight Brokerage Service Can Streamline Your Shipping Operations and Reduce Your Expenses

Instead of trying to handle all your shipping work on your own, outsource the job to an experienced freight brokerage service, like AMR Group.

Working with a freight brokerage service ensures that you understand your freight options, along with the cost, benefits, and disadvantages of each alternative.

Your freight brokerage service can also handle the paperwork required for your goods to smoothly move through customers, along with calculating any tariffs or surcharges owed for your goods. 

Working with knowledgeable freight companies helps your shipping process function as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. 

Learn More About How Freight Companies Can Enhance Your Shipping Processes

Ready to overhaul your shipping procedures so that they suit your company’s growth and future goals? Contact AMR Group to request a rate.

Tips on Implementing the Best Shipping for Small Businesses

As a small business, you need effective shipping for small businesses to ensure your strategy meets your customers’ needs. When crafting your shipping plan, you need to include multiple factors, including cost, reliability, and functionality. All of these components play an important role in helping you build stronger relationships with your customers. Here’s what you need to know about implementing efficient shipping for small businesses.

Address the Shipping Challenges That Plague Your Business

Every business faces unique shipping challenges that they need to overcome. Perhaps you struggle with finding cost-effective options for international shipping, or maybe you’re not sure how to leverage bulk shipping discounts. 

You need to consider strategies that assist you with fixing these common shipping issues, so they don’t impact your growth, profits, or customer satisfaction.

Understand the Benefits of Multi-Carrier Shipping for Your Business

There are several benefits associated with using multi-carrier shipping, including lower shipping costs, faster transit times, and a wider range of locations that your business can deliver to.

Using a selection of shipping companies, instead of a single carrier, provides you with more shipping options and ensures that bottlenecks don’t slow the transit of your goods. You’ll also ultimately have more control and flexibility over your shipping procedures, allowing you to better serve your customers.  

Embrace Cost-Effective Shipping Practices

High shipping costs can quickly erode your profits and interfere with your company’s ability to grow. Look for options that help you minimize your shipping costs, like increasing your volume with specific carriers to procure a discount or using packaging procedures that help you reduce the weight of your shipments. 

Shipping from a centralized location, like a distribution warehouse, can also assist you with streamlining your operations, shortening your transit times, and lowering your shipping costs.

Get More Info About Efficient Shipping for Small Businesses

Ready to improve your shipping practices to lower your costs, increase customer satisfaction, and build stronger relationships? Contact AMR Group today to learn more about our shipping solutions.

Landstar: The Importance of Logistics in the E-Commerce Industry

Logistics plays a crucial role in e-commerce. Although most parts of the transactions occur electronically, you still need to ship physical products to customers using conventional transportation means.

Therefore, logistics is the congregation of different processes such as inventory management, packaging, labeling, billing, warehousing shipping, exchange, payment collection, and return. These processes put together are an exigent task requiring a full-proof logistics strategy.

Logistics also requires thorough knowledge of territories, transport laws, the regulation regarding the movement of goods, roads and road conditions, and other aspects of shipping involved. This article looks at the importance of e-commerce logistics and third-party professional e-commerce fulfillment services like Landstar logistics.

Key Aspects of E-Commerce Logistics Systems

In e-commerce, logistics systems are software applications designed to automate the complex processes of transporting goods from one place to another. Logistics systems have built-in capabilities to replace manual systems because these processes are unsustainably complicated and monotonous when done by humans.

As a result, third-party fulfillment providers use these logistics systems to manage virtually all aspects of the supply chain. Additionally, integrating the applications allows users to share and view information on a single dashboard.

Why Consider Logistics Systems in your E-Commerce Supply Chain?

Logistics systems are essential in the e-commerce industry for companies pursuing an agile management strategy. This efficient approach allows the e-commerce industry to survive and thrive in the highly competitive sector. Unfortunately, using legacy systems like spreadsheets alone to track orders costs money and time in the long run because of human error and inaccuracy issues.

The essence of logistics systems in the e-commerce industry is increasingly becoming apparent to businesses of all sizes. Supply chains can be unreliable, and companies need the flexibility to pivot when needed. Thus, logistics systems reduce the effect of interruptions.

The software automates crucial tasks and provides critical analytical data that aids decision-making. These systems can also play a significant role in scaling your business.

Types of Logistics Systems

Below are the types of logistics systems available:

1. Order management systems: These are needed for order processing operations, and many use automation to satisfy order placement online. They are instrumental in creating shipping labels, routing orders to their designated fulfillment centers, tracking orders throughout the shipment process, and managing sales channels on one platform.
2. Warehouse management systems: This software package helps manage most fulfillment warehouse activities. Having 3PL Landstar Logistics is an advantage because they will handle the warehouse management system for you. In addition, it assures you of industry expertise, access to the latest technology, state-of-the-art security, and order fulfillment efficiency.
3. Inventory planning and management: Although the software cannot do physical inventory management, it automates many tedious processes allowing you to deal with customer orders efficiently.
4. Transport management systems: E-commerce businesses must organize their transport management systems to ensure they handle all known complexities of routing deliveries.
5. Returns management systems: These systems ensure stress-free and efficient returns management. E-commerce businesses must provide a quick turnaround to ensure customers get refunds quickly and make returns easier. They also need to know the prevalence and actual costs of returns.

Why Hire a Logistics Service Provider for Your E-commerce Business?

The principal purpose of logistics is to deliver parcels faster, safer, and more accurately. Today, logistics systems have become an invaluable aspect of the e-commerce industry because they facilitate the seamless movement of goods to and from customers.

Logistics solutions support e-commerce businesses by taking care of processes outside their area of expertise. Hence, working with a good 3PL service provider like AMR Group providing Landstar logistics improves your supply chain management and gives you a competitive edge. Contact us today.

Innovations in Landstar Shipping and Logistics

Efficient and effective logistics management is critical for success in today’s fast-paced and highly competitive business environment. Inefficient businesses lose as much as 30% in revenue yearly.

And nowhere is this more amplified than in the logistics industry. As a result, logistics businesses across the globe are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to streamline their shipping and logistics processes.

One company that has been at the forefront of these efforts is Landstar, a leading provider of transportation and logistics services. In recent years, Landstar has invested significantly in cutting-edge technologies, developing innovative solutions that enhanced its shipping and logistics capabilities.

This article will highlight some of Landstar’s most notable operational innovations and how these forward-thinking advancements have helped the company stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly complex and competitive industry.

Advanced Technologies and Data Analytics

Landstar has invested in advanced technologies such as:

• Agent analytics: Helps agents better manage their business, providing access to graphs and real-time data on revenue, customers, productivity, and prediction analysis.
• Landstar Maximizer: Assists owner-operators to find optimal loads.
• Pricing tools: For the agents who need real-time data on historical and current pricing, helping them react fast to market trends.
• Landstar One app: Provides owner-operators access to LandstarOnline.com, Available Loads apps, LCAPP fuel savings, and the Landstar Maximizer.

These technologies enable Landstar partners to gain real-time visibility into their operations, identify inefficiencies, and optimize routes and schedules for improved efficiency and cost savings.

Shipping Screens

Shipping screens are a digital display system used in Landstar Shipping and Logistics to provide accurate information about the status of shipments and logistics processes.

These Landstar shipping screens typically display data such as shipment locations, expected delivery times, inventory levels, and other critical information essential for effective logistics management.

You will typically find Landstar shipping screens connected to a centralized logistics management system, which collects data from various sources, such as GPS tracking devices, barcode scanners, and other automated systems.

One of the key benefits of shipping screens is that they enable real-time monitoring of shipping and logistics processes. That empowers logistics managers to quickly identify and respond to any issues or delays. Additionally, this helps minimize the risk of costly delays or disruptions, ensuring shipments are delivered on time and within budget.

Safety Compliance Initiatives

Landstar strongly emphasizes safety compliance in all of its operations. The company has implemented a range of safety and compliance initiatives, including training programs, safety inspections, and rigorous quality control processes to ensure safe and secure shipment delivery and remain in compliance with industry regulations.

Enhanced Customer Service and Freight Visibility

Landstar has invested in tools and technologies that enable its customers to track and monitor their shipments, providing greater transparency and visibility into the shipping process. Enhanced visibility helps improve customer satisfaction and increase trust in Landstar’s services.

Collaboration with Strategic Partners

Landstar has partnered with various strategic partners, including logistics consulting firms and technology providers, to develop innovative solutions to complex logistics challenges.

The partnerships have helped Landstar stay at the forefront of industry trends and implement new solutions faster and more effectively. One such collaboration is with AMR Group, a freight shipping company providing reliable and cost-effective logistics solutions.

The company offers various transportation services, including air, sea, and road freight, as well as customs brokerage and warehousing solutions. Through AMR Group, Landstar offers multiple shipping options to its customers, whatever their cargo sizes. 

In Closing

With a strong focus on technology, safety, and sustainability, Landstar has developed shipping and logistics solutions that are efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. Landstar continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the logistics industry.