Companies Need to Rethink the Idea of Overnight Shipping

We have all seen ads promoting the concept of “If it absolutely, positively has to be there, it has to go overnight.” Over the last ten years, the small parcel carriers have done an excellent job of advertising the concept of getting your package delivered tomorrow. They have built a market, and a profitable one at that, based on the concept of instant gratification. As a business, what you need to think about is what price are you willing to pay to get your parcel delivered tomorrow?

Many parcels are shipped via an air service when a ground service will get the parcel delivered in one day. The same holds true for second day service methods with the small parcel carriers. Both UPS and FedEx one day ground service will extend up to 150 miles and their two day ground service will cover up to 450 miles. Be open minded about the regional carriers as well. Many of the regional small parcel carriers are able to deliver well beyond the 450 mile range of the national carriers in a single day.

Of course, if what you are shipping means the success or failure of your business, or if one of your customers has to have that parcel absolutely, positively delivered by tomorrow, or else; then you may feel more confident using an air service. When delivery of a parcel is time sensitive, many companies believe the small parcel air services are more reliable and safer than a ground service.

The ground service of all of the national and regional carriers are rated very high in their on-time delivery stats. The two national small parcel carriers average a 95% or better on time delivery. While this may be true based on their published “delivered on time” service indices, the difference between their ground and air on time percentages are actually only a few points.

If your customer is paying the shipping charges and insists on a next day delivery, then we all know it will go air. If your company is paying for the shipping, then it makes sense to analyze the situation to make a cost effective decision. All too often overnight parcels are delivered the next day and will then sit on the receiving dock waiting to be processed for internal delivery, sometimes even as late as in the afternoon.

This is when the use of the air delivery options by 8:30 am, 10:30am, and 3:00pm begin to make sense. Obviously, each shipment has its own set of complexities and each business has to determine if using an expedited service is the right thing to do.

Using a multi carrier shipping software can be an important tool to automate the decision making process of when to use a carrier's ground service instead of their air service.

In summary, remember to review all of the reasons to ship out or request an overnight shipment. Choose the appropriate service for the situation. Ignoring the available delivery options and always choosing an air service will only guarantee one thing… You will always pay the most amount of money to get your shipment delivered tomorrow.

Michael Everson is President and CEO of Data Trak Technologies located in St Paul Minnesota. For over 18 years Data Trak has been helping businesses of all sizes automate and improve the efficiency of their outbound distribution and shipping operations. You can reach Data Trak at 651-639-0091 or email sales@dtsna.com. Data Trak’s web address is http://www.dtsna.com.