Freight costs for manufacturers: know the number before you quote
Example: a $190.00 ex GST quote from last year's price list, on a pallet that now costs $224.27 ex GST from Melbourne to Perth, loses $34.27 ex GST. Twenty-five pallets a month is $856.75 ex GST.
Trade freight gets quoted from a list someone built a while ago. Cubic, fuel and the actual zone only turn up on the carrier invoice, after the customer has already agreed the price.
Pallets and bulky freight
Set a pallet up as a carton on the SKU, with its length, width, height and weight. A SKU can ship as several cartons. Add the carrier's pallet service, and the rate card sets whether it rates per consignment or per carton, its cubic factor and how weight breaks apply.
Forensik works out cubic and rated weight per carton. A SKU with no cartons is flagged as cannot price, never guessed.
B2B quoting
Test a quote prices a whole order before it exists: pick the SKUs and the destination, and see the carrier cost and the price for each service, with the working. It is a screen for your team. There is no customer quote portal. Enter the agreed freight on the order, by hand or in a CSV or Excel order file.
Freight recovery
What you charged goes in the ledger beside the expected cost and what the carrier billed. Margin rollups shows the result by customer, SKU, postcode, zone, service and carrier. An order that was charged below its expected cost or below your markup price shows on the Value report as an under-quote.
Global and category markups are on every plan. SKU and postcode markups are on Growth and above.
Worked example, with example numbers
Example numbers: one pallet, 1.2 m x 1.2 m x 1.0 m and 240 kg, on a rate card with a cubic factor of 250 and a rate of $0.52 ex GST per kg.
Cubic weight is 1.44 x 250 = 360 kg. That beats the dead weight, so the rated weight is 360 kg and the base charge is $187.20 ex GST.
Fuel at 19.8% is $37.07 ex GST, so the carrier cost is $224.27 ex GST.
At a 20% markup the freight to recover is $269.12 ex GST.
Questions
- Can my customers get quotes themselves?
- No. Quoting is inside Forensik, for your team. You give the customer the price the way you do now.
- Do I need an online store?
- No. Orders can come from a CSV or Excel file or be entered by hand, and invoices come from your carrier files.
- Does it book the freight?
- No. Forensik is not a carrier or a broker and does not book consignments. You ship as you do now and give it the connote.
See where your freight margin goes
Forensik prices every shipment from your own rate cards and checks every carrier invoice line against them.