There’s no getting around it: finding an ideal shipping solution is a major logistical challenge for even the most experienced business. Starting your journey with a delivery partner or carrier that secures the best ROI for your business is only the first piece of the puzzle – then comes managing day-to-day delivery needs and making adjustments to your account where necessary.
Of course, this can be a time-consuming, resource-heavy undertaking. Fortunately, there is a solution that addresses both the financial and logistical aspects of making your business’ shipments: a managed multi-carrier delivery solution. Working with a partner that offers a managed multi-carrier shipping service can save your business money and time, giving you unbeatable buying power with the world’s major couriers, combined with best-in-class customer service.
Whether you’re considering switching to a multi-carrier delivery solution or you’re hearing about it for the first time, here are the key ways your business can benefit, which we’ll unpack further below:
- Significant savings on delivery costs
- No delivery account admin – it’s all managed for your business
- Outstanding customer service
- Preferential fuel surcharges
Multi-Carrier Delivery Solution: What’s Involved?
In short, a multi-carrier delivery solution gives your business access to a range of delivery companies in one neat package, all managed under a single account. This gives you one point of contact despite the range of carriers at your disposal.
This is perfect for businesses that need a simple, streamlined delivery solution to get products, paperwork and parcels to the right people – nationally and globally – as efficiently as possible and in a hassle-free manner.
Why Use a Multi-Carrier Delivery Solution: The Key Benefits
Multi-carrier delivery has the power to simplify your business’ shipping needs at every touchpoint. As a completely managed service, a multi-carrier solution grants access to total management of the delivery of your goods, as well as advice and customer service from the provider, rather than the individual courier companies. With your multi-carrier delivery partner’s superior buying power, it results in more affordable shipping costs as well.
Using a multi-carrier provider can help your business surmount the challenges – both routine and unforeseen – of carrier management.
1. Significant savings on delivery costs
Multi-carrier providers benefit from discounted rates from couriers; the more parcels they ship in bulk, the better the prices. No matter how large or small your shipping needs are, working with a multi-carrier solution unlocks their discounts for your own orders.
Of course, each courier has its own rates for parcels depending on their weight, size and delivery location. Using a multi-carrier provider like ILG, you can get the best delivery rates for your business’s unique shipping needs.
What does this look like in numbers? At ILG, our longstanding courier relationships and high order volumes give us superior buying power on delivery costs, which can save our customers up to 25% on their courier spend. Effectively, the world’s most sophisticated and far-reaching logistics networks are theirs, at significantly lower delivery costs.
2. Proactive account management and advice
You may wonder, what’s the point of a multi-carrier solution if I already know I’m with the right courier?
In addition to superior buying power with that courier, multi-carrier delivery gives you access to irreplaceable advice and account management, saving you time and money and enabling your shipping solution to pivot when necessary. For example, if your regular courier is anticipated to be hit by strike action or a particularly demanding volume of seasonal orders, your multi-carrier provider can update you accordingly and ensure your deliveries aren’t disrupted by switching you to another, more reliable carrier.
This all happens behind the scenes, without you needing to take care of any admin with individual courier companies. Your multi-carrier delivery partner can, and should, keep you apprised of any opportunities for further growth, as well as proactively finding solutions to the inevitable challenges that are common in the shipping industry.
3. Outstanding customer service
Alongside comprehensive account management and advice, multiple couriers being managed by a single provider also gives you access to fantastic customer service, courtesy of your dedicated point of contact.
Rather than going through ambiguous contact procedures or call centres with individual couriers, working with a multi-carrier provider such as ILG, gives you access to an experienced UK-based team directly responsible for managing your account, who understands your business and proactively seeks to improve the service you’re receiving. Whether through routine parcel tracking or on-hand support, this guidance can make a huge difference.
At ILG, we achieve this by foregoing the call centre model in favour of dedicated client service team members, specifically assigned to our delivery clients. Their role is to regularly assess the accounts under their care, proactively finding ways to streamline and make them more efficient for each individual client.
4. Lower fuel surcharges
When looking to reduce delivery costs, fuel surcharges can also play a major role in pricing. Working with a multi-carrier delivery provider allows access to fuel surcharges that are more competitive than those that individual delivery companies advertise, again courtesy of the bulk buying power relationship that multi-carrier providers have with individual courier companies.
Ultimately, this can save you money on fuel surcharges on every single parcel. At ILG, we’ve been actively working to mitigate these surcharges in recent years, and it’s paying dividends for our clients.
5. Partnering with ILG is cost-effective and hassle-free
At ILG, we’re dedicated to cost efficiency and ease in equal measure, helping our clients get the most from their deliveries with minimal effort on their part. We offer shipping to 240+ countries and territories, facilitating up to 725,000 shipments each month. This amounted to a total of 5.2 million orders processed in 2022.
shipments
To achieve this success, we specialise in swift, reliable communication with the carriers at our disposal, meaning customs clearance or any associated issues can be resolved more easily on behalf of our delivery clients.
As a customer, this is all tied together with a simple booking system that makes scheduling deliveries as streamlined as possible. Through our account management system, you can monitor all shipping operations and track parcels in one place, in real time. This level of service and ease of onboarding is universal, whether you’re a global business or a niche local business at the top of its game.
Get Started with ILG Today
Interested in finding out more about our managed multi-carrier delivery solution?
Get in touch with our delivery team today to get started, or learn more about ILG here.
Contact Us
More insights >
Omnichannel Excellence in the Beauty Industry: Navigating a New Era of Retail
The retail industry is constantly evolving, but the fundamental change in recent years is that the customer is now in charge. Read the key takeaways from the Omnichannel Excellence Panel here.
Post-Peak Strategies for Long-Term Growth in Fashion, Beauty & Wellbeing
In this third part of our guide on peak season fulfilment, we’ll explore how to ensure your brand’s post-peak strategy is optimised for long-term success.