Perhaps the greatest cost to any company selling products B2C or B2B is the cost of transportation. The cost of moving products in bulk from their point of manufacture/supply, and then back out as small packages to consumers in the general public or retail distribution centers can easily equate to or exceed the total cost of all of our warehousing & fulfillment services to our customers.

This is where SPF’s aggregated buying power drives savings straight to the bottom line of our customers. Whether it is containers coming from China to Port Elizabeth and drayage to Swan, or small packages shipping UPS ground to an e-commerce purchaser, our long standing relationships with our partners in the transportation industry and volume purchasing delivers expertise and savings. We work with freight brokers for inbound and outbound TL and LTL truck shipments & retail distribution center consolidation, and have deeply discounted rates for air & ground small parcel shipping including USPS postal consolidation. Our clients leverage that buying power to create margin for the products they sell and support the low cost shipping offers which have become a marketing necessity.

We work with clients to evaluate the best carrier and service level mix for their products, taking into account the product value, commitments made to their customers, time in transit needs, depth of tracking and insurance requirements, international options, and other factors. Shipment routing for each order can then be dictated in a number of ways…..all orders shipping the same carrier & service level, purchasers selecting from available shipping options that correspond to a carrier & service levels defined by our client (eg. “Standard Shipping = Ground and “Express Shipping = 2-Day Air), or we can script custom business rules to select the best option at the time of shipping based on client defined rules (eg. deliver in 2 days, ship ground when possible).

Our advanced shipment manifesting software facilitates rate shopping across multiple carriers and service levels, providing many options to correspond to the shipping commitments made by our customers.  Some of our rate shopping scripts include:

• Rate shop each package for the least cost carrier and service level based on each package's weight and destination zip code
• Rate shop but deliver the package in 1, 2 or 3 days - this allows for the use of ground service when possible and air services otherwise

International Import & Shipping:

Leverage our industry relationships with international air & sea freight logistics providers for door-to-door transit of your products from your manufacturers. From small air freight shipments to high cube 40 foot sea containers, our experts can manage the entire process right to our dock doors with a single point of contact.

• Air express shipments – leverage our discounted rates with UPS for time critical air shipments
• Air freight shipments – utilize our Official IATA agents and agreements with reputable air carriers for time sensitive air shipments, including global consolidation for optimized transit
• Sea container shipments – global LCL and FCL solutions & network of agents, online container tracking, fast transit times, long tenured agreements with key shipping companies
• Freight forwarding, customs clearance and all associated brokerage services