Freight Quote – Get It In Writing
The term “get it in writing” especially holds true for freight quotes, but how many of us on both the shipper side and freight forwarder side follow that advice 100 percent of the time? Regardless of which side of the fence we sit, we should always make it a practice to get it in writing. You might say, “We have been partners for years, they would never take advantage of us.” That might be true, but what if your price for services rendered comes in drastically higher than you anticipated?
I recently witnessed an issue where a a long time customer did not obtain a formal quote for a semi-large transload, warehousing, and distribution project on the West Coast. The company was already in slight panic mode after learning that their supplier encountered “delays” in production which delayed the shipment of goods for three weeks. Fearing chargebacks from their customer for their potential inability to meet drop dead delivery dates, the customer contracted their long time 3PL partner to perform some light pick and pack, product sorting, labeling, and rebuilding of outbound pallets. Lost in all of the urgency to get the product shipped, the company neglected to get all of the 3PL costs upfront in a formal quote. With the help of the 3PL, the customer fulfilled its product delivery requirements with the major U.S. retailer and the project largely went off without a hitch…that was until the invoice for services rendered came in the mail. The invoice was nearly double what the customer expected. Needless to say there were many emails, phone calls, and pleas for a revised lower invoice. The logistics costs negatively impacted their landed costs which affected their overall profit margins on the project.
Although the customer did pay the bill, the relationship was strained because both the forwarder and the customer failed to “get it in writing”.
What steps do you take to ensure that all costs for services rendered are in writing? Have any stories where projects failed due to no written agreements? Drop us a line and let us know.
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