Dim Weight Shipping Champs
You want to send a gift to some clients. Popcorn is always a popular treat!
The Past
When the box of popcorn ships, it does take up a big chunk of space in the shippers truck. But, since it weighs next to nothing, your shipping costs used to be next to nothing.
Now
In 2015 shipping carriers want to get paid for all that extra space your big, but lightweight, boxes are taking up on their trucks. This has always been the case on their air shipments, but it is now affecting regular, more common ground shipments. They have started charging dimensional weight or dim weight – a billing technique which takes into account the length, width, and height of a package, and favors shippers of dense objects in smaller boxes and penalizes those who ship lightweight, larger boxes.
This helps the shipping carriers ensure that the costs they incur to deliver a package more closely align with the fee they charge to the shipper. But it means we are experiencing the largest cumulative shipping fee increase in history!
When you ship a package the carrier measures the actual weight of the package. They then calculate the dim weight of the package using the calculation above. The carrier will charge you for the HIGHER of the two weights.
You can understand why lot of people start to panic about shipping costs. We are here to tell you not to worry, we are dim weight shipping champs!
If you choose to order popcorn, we might suggest you order Oreo flavored popcorn that has chocolate and cookies blended in and is much heavier than plain flavor, tipping the box towards an “actual weight” shipping cost. You may order a smaller size of flavored corn to help bring the size of the box down, or choose cashews or a trail mix as an alternative.
While we cannot insulate you from these costs entirely, we can help lead you in the right direction:
- Our sales team mentally factors shipping into the selection process and can help guide you to product that will carry a lower shipping fee and fit within your budget.
- Our fulfillment and distribution center continually works to reduce our packing materials, use smaller boxes and compress goods when possible.
- We are constantly monitoring shipping policies with major carriers to ensure we are ahead of the game and saving money for our clients.
When you partner with PCi we are putting our expertise to work to help you knock out unnecessary costs and make you look good to your boss and clients!
Contact us to manage your merchandise program distribution and fulfillment and knock out your dim weight shipping challenges.
