This is part 4 in the series about using a multiple carrier shipping system. If you ship with more than one carrier and use the ‘free’ individual shipping systems from each carrier, you substantially complicate your shipping processes. From the very start, if you use two or more single carrier shipping systems, the initial installation is harder. You have to set up two systems. You need to allocate the physical space to accommodate each separate system. You need double the computer and shipping hardware.
Next, each system will have its own method to connect to your existing data. This means the IT staff needs to learn how to make multiple, outside systems read data from and write data to your existing data tables. Using two or more systems mean training needs increase. More training time is needed for everyone who uses the shipping systems (initial system users and new hires) because there are multiple systems to learn. This includes IT staff, too. When updates occur, each system will be updated on a different schedule, so there is more work needed to keep the systems current.
And that’s just to make the systems ready to ship packages. If you think that sounds hard, wait until you use them. Using separate systems means that it’s just about impossible to efficiently choose shipping by one carrier or another at the point of shipping. If you are looking for the best carrier, best rate, best anything, you have to check out each package in each system. If you shipped a package by one carrier and you need to change the carrier, first you delete the package from one system, then add it to the other system. Unless your order system can accurately predetermine the carrier and service needed every time for every package, choosing the best carrier and service for any package can mean more work for this shipping system operator, which slows down the shipping process.
An excellent solution for these issues is using a multiple carrier shipping system. Our CPS shipping software easily ships with the 3 major US package carriers. With CPS, there is just one system to setup, one system to learn and one system to update. Streamlining those processes is a tremendous efficiency gain. In the actual shipping process, the shipping system operator uses one system for everything - no jumping from here to there to there. This is faster with far less chance of errors. Using just one system means more packages can be shipped in a given period of time with fewer shipping mistakes (such as wrong carrier or wrong service) made. These are all clear “wins” in the shipping department.
Put these multiple carrier shipping system advantages together and they add up to more packages out the door, an easier connection between the shipping system and your data, and a smoother way to use and choose the best carrier and service for every package. In fact, the hardest thing about using a multiple carrier system is making sure you put each completed, labeled package in the right pick up stack for its carrier.
There’s more, but let’s keep this blog length, not book length. For more information about CPS, visit http://www.harveysoft.com/.
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