Shipping costs in 2021: New benchmarks to adjust your budgets

Time to take a second look at your budget. 2021 shipping costs will likely be higher than originally thought.

Updated predictions during the recent “Code Red Freight Forecast” webinar break down the numbers by types of shipping.

The numbers you need for next year

To prevent getting hit by some unexpected – and costly – surprises, you’ll want to revisit your shipping budgets with these latest numbers in mind:

• a 10%-15% increase in truck shipping (compared to the expected 5%-7% jumps), and
• a 6%-7% increase for parcel shipping (originally predicted to come in under 5%).

Further adding to the hikes: reduced flight carrier availability.

Minimizing 2021 shipping costs hikes

So what can you do to minimize the 11th-hour pinch? Play it conservative, says A.J. Hernandez, CEO of SkyPostal, Inc. He advocates a two-pronged approach to shipping costs:

• extend your existing contracts where possible, and
• seek shorter-term contracts for smaller parts of your business.

Some of your peers have hit upon some creative strategies of their own to control shipping costs.

One company knew that orders going across the country were extremely expensive to send through the U.S. Postal Service. So they decided instead to rent semi trucks to transport those products and mail them locally.

Granted, the shift required a certain amount of volume to make the trek, but it was well worth it. It beat the high costs of long-distance shipping.