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FreightXtension - Freight, LTL, Courier - Ottawa

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FreightXtension - Freight, LTL, Courier - Ottawa

Freightxtension is a freight shipping company for all of your cross country or cross border shipping requirements to Canada and the USA. www.freightxtension.com

We specialize in saving companies time and money! Fast efficient service, expert advice and the best possible rates... At FreightXtension our business is building effective relationships with our clients through service excellence and by making their shipping experience easy and cost effective. Every day we are saving our clients time and money by making shipping easy, providing expert advice and

empowering them with instant access to discounted rates and exceptional service for shipments of all sizes: LTL, Truckload and Courier shipments

With FreightXtension you get immediate access to the best of both worlds in transportation with our:

Pallet Plus Network

- One of the largest selections of discounted per pallet rates across Canada and the USA
- Complete Coverage Across Canada and the USA for LTL, Truckload, LCL, FCL, and Flatbed
- Online tracking & email notifications
Transportation Management System Tool
- Log on to this amazing tool for instant access
- Discounted NMFC Class based LTL rates, from over 100 leading carriers
- Discounted Worldwide Courier Rates from the leading courier companies
- Choose your carrier or courier based on rate and transit time
- Schedule the pickup
- Print the Bill of Lading/Courier Label and Commercial Invoice
- Track the shipment live

Tension free shipping, exceptional service and discounts on any size shipment, anywhere. Plug in to the power of technology and your own extensive network of safe and qualified carriers and couriers. Get FreightXtension on your team today!

10/03/2018

Avoiding Extra Charges on Your Shipments

While there are thousands of carriers in North America, the types of extra service options are actually pretty consistent among them. There are a variety of extra services but typically at least 80 percent of the “surprise “extra charges customers incur, come down to three main areas.

· A change in the method of loading/unloading the shipment
· A change in the dimensions or weight of the shipment
· The requirement for an appointment or call ahead

The good news is that these areas are also the easiest to manage by making slight adjustments to your shipping or procurement processes.

To avoid “surprises” it is important for your sales or purchasing teams to include some key questions in their processes when purchasing from suppliers or selling to customers.

1. What is being shipped? What is the commodity? What
is the number and accurate dimensions and weight of
the handling units being shipped? Be sure to include
the skid, crate or packaging before calculating the
dimensions and weight.
2. Is the location a business?
3. Is there a dock at the location?
4. If they do not have a dock, what are the requirements?
· Is it a residential location
· Do they have a shipping and receiving area?
· Will ordering a tailgate to work for them?
· Is the shipment too big or heavy to fit on a tailgate?
· Is the driver required to bring the shipment inside?
5. Does either location require an appointment? It takes a
lot more planning and impacts the efficiency of the
driver when an appointment is required. It will typically
delay the delivery transit by a day as well.
6. Can the location be accessed safely with a full size 53
foot truck and trailer combination?
7. What are the date and hours the shipment is ready for
pickup.
8. What are the receiving hours for delivery

This list of questions may seem long but typically only takes a couple minutes, especially if the location is a businesses with a dock. In the end, that couple of minutes will save you and your customers time, frustration and greatly reduce the "surprise" extra charges

06/05/2018

In today’s Market Bigger is not always better!

The US needs 50,000 truck drivers to avoid a shipping squeeze. (CNBC)
Truck driver shortage raising prices, delaying deliveries- (Toronto Star)
The U.S. Is Running Out of Truckers- (Bloomberg)

A general rule with freight rates has been, the more you ship the cheaper the shipping cost per piece. Today, in 2018, with headlines like these dominating the news that is not necessarily the case!

When you have a shortage of available trucks and drivers, the truckload market is where you see the worst
impacts. On the flip side, LTL rates and availability, while not immune to the driver shortage are not as profoundly
affected. It is easy to understand the difference. A truckload shipment requires one truck for one shipment,
whereas LTL is many shipments on one truck. Right now a truckload rate can be thousands above what it was at
this time last year. As well, depending on availability you may have to wait some time for a truck to be scheduled.
Where possible, reducing your shipments size can be a big help in keeping your products and supplies moving in a
timely manner. In some cases it actually can work out to be cheaper.

It is also worth noting that in the past when there were more drivers than shipments it could often be seen as
advantageous to quote your LTL on the spot market. While this may have in some cases helped save some money
at the time, it did not do a lot to help build the loyalty and relationship a company needs when the market shifts to
demand exceeding supply. Today`s spot market is where you will see the biggest increase in both TL and LTL rates.

In these times, the many advantages of working with partners like Freightxtension that have always focused on
building long term relationships with carriers will be even more profound.

04/23/2018

Looking for treasure? Try adjusting your focus!

In an age where everything is quicker, faster and better sometimes it is difficult to take the time to focus on the smaller details of your business. Of course, the big costs stand out blatantly on our radar but many of the smaller costs fly quietly under.

Our sales team sees this tendency a lot in our business. Shippers do their homework and pay close attention to the costs associated with their larger LTL and/or truckload shipments, especially in periods in which shipping rates are rising. They are open to hearing about new providers and receiving quotes on these shipments. But when our reps ask about their courier shipments, they are told “no thanks, we have been using Xyz Company for years and are quite happy”.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am the first one to appreciate the importance of loyalty and the advantages of a solid, earned-relationship for both service provider and customer. I just believe that the “earned” part is crucial! We have found that no less than 75% of the time when our reps are able to get a small or medium sized shipper to allow us to quote on their courier shipments; we are able to provide them with a significant cost savings. In many cases that savings is realistically between 30% and 60%.

Let’s say for the purpose of discussion that you spend 20 times as much on LTL and/or truckload shipments than you do on courier. Let’s say $200 000 on LTL and $10 000 on courier. Maybe this year with the market the way it has been, your rates have increased 5%.

$200 000 x 5%= $10 000

A 30-60% savings on your courier would go a long way to helping with your increased costs

30%-$3000
50%-$5000
60%-$6000

Treasure can be found by adjusting our focus!

03/01/2018

What has happened to Freight Rates and Availability Recently?

The combination of devastating storms in 2017, a strengthening economy, the shortage of new drivers entering the industry and the introduction of ELD’s (electronic logs) have contributed to a unique capacity (supply) crunch, the likes of which has not been seen in many years.

With a strong economy and an ELD related loss in overall driver productivity, demand for trucks is currently exceeding available supply. The biggest effects on rates and availability are most directly seen in the truckload market, since it is one shipment per truck, but it does carry through to the LTL markets as well.

Coming off a long period of generally flat freight rates with no way to tell how long the economy will stay strong and a limited supply of qualified drivers, carriers will be reluctant and challenged to add additional capacity (trucks). This means the likelihood of trucks being added to relieve the supply crunch is very low. With demand exceeding supply, drivers needing to be paid more and increasing costs to operate we will continue to see upward pressure on rates and a tightening of available trucks for the foreseeable future.

As a shipper, the best way to limit these impacts is to position your organization as a great customer to work with by communicating and understanding the challenges that carriers face. Some tips:

- Work to reduce loading/unloading delay times. Driver delay time is a big problem for drivers with ELD’s in place.

-Try to be as flexible as possible with dock times on pickup and delivery

- Try not to send broadcast emails to multiple carriers at once requesting quotes. This practice generally does not leave a great impression. There are tools that can allow you to compare multiple carriers’ rates instantly and privately

-Try to always provide accurate information about size, weight, commodity and requirements of your shipments.

Freightxtension offers a free tool that allows you to compare rates of hundreds of LTL carriers and couriers at awesome discounts.

01/25/2018

What is the ELD Mandate?

The ELD Mandate requires all commercial trucks to have a small on board computer device that collects data. This device primarily collects data on GPS location, truck engine running time/speed and driver log trip details/notes.

How is it the data used?

The ELD captures the data and generates a report that can be used by enforcement authorities to validate that a driver is operating within the legal HOS (hours of service) regulations. The ELD mandate has not changed the HOS regulations; it has just made it easier to enforce those regulations. Previously, with paper logs it was possible for a driver to manipulate their logs to some extent.

How can the ELD Mandate affect shippers?

ELD’s are intended to increase safety on our roads but still many drivers consider ELD’s to be “big brother” watching over their every move and the government making it more difficult for them to do their jobs. For many, right or wrong, this change is too much for them and a percentage will choose early retirement.

The ELD Mandate was brought into effect to improve the safety of our roads. Drivers should be able to work within the law and still make a decent wage. The ELD Mandate brings some of the challenges that the trucking industry has faced for years to the forefront.

Based on statistics the average truck driver in North America is in their mid 50’s. This is primarily due to the fact that driving a truck, especially long haul, is not only a career but also a lifestyle change. Very few women have historically chosen the career and few of the younger generation are entering into the profession. This means there is already a shortage of quality drivers in the industry. This shortage was masked by the recession.

With some drivers taking early retirement and some able to do less than they were, there will be an effect on available capacity (supply). Since the beginning of 2018 we have already seen many carriers adjusting transit times, rates, service lanes and shying away from lanes and shipments that have a history of consuming drivers available on duty hours.

11/02/2017

Additional Services Charges - PART 1 - Lift Gate Service & Residential Delivery - "What are some of the more common additional services charges and when do they apply?"

Lift Gate Service... (read more)

A Lift Gate is a hydraulic lift located at the back of the trailer. It is used to bring pallets from truck/dock level down to ground level. Lift gates are most commonly found on local straight trucks and not full size highway trailers.

If you are shipping or receiving pallets and you do not have a dock 48–52 inches from the ground, you will require a lift gate.

Lift gates have limitations... (read more)

· They are not usually as wide as the trailer so they can not usually handle pallets wider than 90 inches.

· Lift gates are most commonly found on local straight trucks with roll up doors - so height cannot exceed 90 inches high.

· For safety reasons, pallets can’t overhang the lift gate so they can’t be over 48 inches in both length and width.

· For pallets over 60 inches wide - the receiver will have to have a pallet jack (manual tow motor) at ground level to remove the pallet from the lift gate. There is not room for the driver’s pallet jack on the lift with pallets this large.

· Weight limit for lift gates can vary - but typically not more than 1500 lbs per pallet.

· For safety reasons - a generally level unloading area is required for lift gate service.

Residential Delivery... (read more)

Shipments delivering or picking up in residential areas are more challenging and take more time for drivers than standard business deliveries. This is the reason there is an additional charge for residential deliveries.

Typically residential shipments will also require lift gate service. So both additional services will be applicable.

Residential delivery does not mean delivery or pickup inside the home or garage. Residential delivery charge is for going to the residential address. Delivering inside a home or garage would be a different service and would depend on the nature of the requirement.

10/19/2017

How to avoid Re-weigh and ``Surprise`` Extra Charges

It is never a pleasant surprise to receive revised/extra charges on a shipment. From my experience, in the large majority of situations, it should not really be a surprise. One of the biggest reasons for revised charges is due to the dimensions, weight or requirements not being accurate when the shipment was quoted and scheduled.

The best way to avoid these types of additional charges is to confirm everything. The actual dimensions, weights and ready times verified with the shipper, as well as any special requirements for pickup or at delivery consignee.

Pickup:
* Where is it picking up: Company Name, address and phone number?
* What is being shipped: Actual dimensions and weights of the skids being shipped?
* When it is ready for pickup: What date and hours is the shipment ready for pickup?
* Are there any special requirements at shipper: Is it a first come, first serve dock level pickup, are there special requirements: appts required, tailgate, straps, temp control, dangerous goods etc?
* Is it crossing the border: Who is the customs broker and have the customs documents been generated?

Delivery:
* Where is it delivering: Company Name, address and phone number?
* What are the hours for receiving?
* Are there any special requirements at receiving: Is it a first come, first serve dock level delivery or are there special requirements like: appts required, tailgate required, residential, limited access etc?

Having this basic and necessary information will always be relevant and will drastically reduce any revised charges, as well as help to ensure smooth and timely service to your facilities and customers. As a general rule if you do not know the answers to these questions your shipment is not really ready to ship.

09/21/2017

Why I started FreightXtension

After 20+ years in the transportation industry working for truckload, LTL and refrigerated carriers in various capacities including Dispatcher, Driver Recruitment, Customer Service Manager, Operations Manager, Sales, Director of Business Development and General Operations Manager - I saw an opportunity for a unique and fresh approach to freight.

Typically, transportation companies specialize in LTL or Truckload or Courier, but not all 3. This means if you, the shipper, are working with a company and you really have a great relationship with them - for LTL for instance - you would not be able to work with them on your courier or truckload shipments. This is a shame since relationships are one of the most important parts of our business. It is important to have confidence and trust in your transportation partner and it is always preferred to work with someone who knows who you are and who has an understanding of your business.

Some brokers and carriers do provide LTL and Truckload service - but very few also provide Courier. In fact, many shippers are not aware that there are options that allow you to share in pooling courier volumes with other shippers to receive the discounts of large volume shippers.

Freightxtension was formed with this in mind. One team that develops a relationship with you, that knows you, understands your business needs and also directly represents numerous LTL, FTL & Courier providers - giving you immediate access to volume leveraged rates for all types of freight.

08/24/2017

E-commerce Store Owners looking to use or currently using Shopify

We are an extension of your business & now you can use the same unbelievable savings for courier & LTL shipping in an easy-to-use plug in app, with Shopify. Market your items on Facebook to your fans, and watch them like, comment & share your items with 1000’s of potential buyers!

Shopify & Facebook - Shipping Integration - Post, Sell, Print, Ship, Save & Earn $

* Take advantage of your FreightXtension leveraged discounts
* Help eliminate abandoned shopping carts
* Set either “flat shipping rates” or “real-time shipping rates”
* Batch shipping label printing
* Schedule courier pickups
* Automated tracking & customer e-mail notifications
* Shopify payment processing for item(s) & shipping all at one POS stop
*Market your products on Facebook for MAXIMUM exposure!

Contact us today and find out how easy it is to setup and start using today!

08/01/2017

Aug & Sept long weekend holiday shipping suggestions...

Everyone loves a long weekend but there is usually a price to pay. The requirements of the business do not go away on holidays, it typically just means that everything has to be done in one day less that week.

This is definitely the case in the shipping industry and that is why it is always a good idea to understand and plan for delays. Since carriers and couriers will be trying to accomplish 5 days worth of volume in 4 days, transit schedules will be altered and delays will inevitably occur. Transit times will typically be pushed a minimum of one day.

Long weekends put increased scheduling pressures on all the important participants in the shipping process. The carriers, customs brokers, shippers & consignees alike.

To ensure the holiday is a good one for you, your suppliers and partners, understand the impacts long weekends have on the shipping process, plan accordingly and maintain reasonable expectations.

07/17/2017

Prompt Customs documentation gets your shipment moving faster...

With the requirements for ACE and ACI electronic pre-clearances, it has never been more important to generate and send your cross border - Customs documentation to your transportation provider in a timely manner.

For optimum transit, it is recommended that you send the Customs documents to your provider electronically at the time the shipment is scheduled, instead of waiting and providing them at the time when the shipment is picked up.

Due to the e-manifest requirements - a carrier cannot take a chance on loading a shipment that has not yet been accepted by Customs onto a departing cross border trailer. For this reason, shipments for which documentation have already been sent and accepted by Customs will get priority loading.

A simple thing like sending your Customs documentation ahead of time will increase your chances for optimum transit time.

Address

Ottawa, ON

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.freightxtension.com/

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