Tips for Choosing a Carrier from Our Robust Network

When it’s time to choose a freight carrier, the seemingly endless options can be overwhelming. Freightquote was founded with proprietary technology to help simplify your shipping decisions, especially when it comes to matching your business with the right carrier for your materials and products. Here are a few tips to help you make the best freight carrier choice for your shipment.

Determine your shipping priorities

What is most important for your shipment—the amount of time it will be in transit or the cost? Our carrier selection page defaults carriers to sort to best match, and you also have the options to sort based on transit times or from lowest to highest price. Lower priced carriers typically prioritize competitive pricing over transit time, while higher priced carriers usually offer more direct shipping lanes and expedited transit times. Adjust the list of carriers by your priority, keeping in mind that economy carriers may be less consistent in their transit times than higher priced carriers. Carriers priced in the middle often provide balanced value for your money.

Consider capacity challenges

Carrier networks face tight capacity due to higher shipping demand, which leaves shippers facing increased costs. Freightquote’s expansive, vetted network does some of the work for you by providing prices for your shipment, but you can do something, too: plan ahead and build in extra time to move your freight. While this isn’t always possible, looking for quotes as soon as you’re aware of an impending shipment can help you maximize the potential for freight shipping savings.

Take reliability and stability into consideration

We review members of our carrier network quarterly, looking at metrics like on-time percentages, damage rates, and bid adherences to ensure we work with the most reputable contract carriers. Frequent, high-quality transportation management system (TMS) updates and communications are other signs that a carrier is reliable.

Include required additional services

As you go through our free quoting tool, we’ll ask which (if any) additional services you need. Options include:

• Lift gate: If you don’t have a loading dock and your shipment is too heavy to lift by hand into the truck
• Inside delivery: If the driver will need to move the shipment from a location other than directly behind the truck
• Limited access: Non-commercial locations which may be difficult for a truck to access
• Appointment fee: When the carrier must contact the delivery location to set an appointment

Not all carriers provide every additional service. Our quoting tool will only show freight carriers that are able to fulfill all your needs for each shipment.

Want to learn more about Freightquote?

Find out how we disrupted the industry, changing how people and businesses ship freight. You can also read about our commitment to clients and carriers in our latest articles and watch a brief video about streamlined processes for online self-serve shipping experiences.