When you talk about cost effectiveness, it is important to remember that this doesn’t mean the cheapest option, especially when it comes to heavy haulage hauliers and freight transport.

Cheap may save you money on the surface but can sometimes lead to heavy costs later in the game. Cost effectiveness is what gets the job done well with the least resources spent.

Resources

When you are calculating cost effectiveness, don’t forget to include your time, or the time of your family or employees, as a cost. The time that you spend hunting up the best deal is a resource and your time can add to be the biggest expense if you aren’t careful. If you get a great quote but it involves you driving for three hours to deliver something, calculate your time and travel costs and add that to the quote as it is a definite expense.

Turnaround Trips

Many cargo transport companies have situations where they sent a truck interstate to deliver something and then the truck will do the return trip empty. They are happy to sell the space in their truck for this return trip at a cheaper price than regular freight shipping. This will work wonderfully if you have something that needs to be picked up from their drop-off point and want it delivered at their point of origin. This is a great option so look for companies that advertise that they have branches at each destination.

Cost Effectiveness

• Size does count – get the appropriate size transport. Don’t get something that is twice as big as what was needed.
• Book – many companies will charge a premium for jobs that are booked at the last minute as they are unable to work them into the work plans as well. Book early to avoid premiums.
• Buy locally – not only will your local retailers and suppliers love you for it, but it is another way to save money on transport. This option isn’t always relevant but take it up when you can.
• Ebay – if you get a great deal on Ebay or another online auction site, remember to take transport into consideration. If you live in Melbourne, the pool table from Brisbane may not be a great deal.

Sharing

Transport costs can be high, and the more specialised or heavy you go, the more expensive it is. Whereever possible the best road to take is to share with someone or use a company that uses each trip to transport goods for multiple customers. If what you are transporting is oversized this may not be available but ask anyway, it may save you a lot of money. Some companies will hire out trailers and then have multiple trailers on each truck, this will be a very viable option if what you have to transport can fit in a trailer. There is always the option of trains as well. This can have some restrictions but if you are looking to move a shipping container of equipment it may be a great option as well.

When you buy goods you often get the option to include shipping in the purchase price. Many people think that this is just another way for the supplier to make money but as you can see, transporting heavy goods is a minefield so you may want to consider taking up your supplier on the option, if for no other reason than to save you confusion and stress.