2 Amazing Clarifications on the Impact of Freight Cost on The Flowers You Buy

Most often flower wholesalers, importers and general buyers of farm direct fresh cut flowers care so much in the flower price while one of the crucial factors influencing the final a final consumer gets is FREIGHT cost. Here are 2 Amazing Clarifications on the Impact of Freight Cost on The Flowers You Buy.

Most often flower wholesalers, importers and general buyers of farm direct fresh cut flowers care so much in the flower price while one of the crucial factors influencing the final a final consumer gets is FREIGHT cost. Here are 2 Amazing Clarifications on the Impact of Freight Cost on The Flowers You Buy.

1. Lack of Understanding of the term itself

What is freight cost in flower business
The cost incurred in moving the flower cargo is delivered from the hub of the farm or exporter to the hub of the final consumer like florist, supermarket, weddings and events etc. It includes packing, palletizing, documentation and handling charges, carriage costs, Phytosanitary certification and insurance costs. The price depends on the form of the cargo, the mode of transport (truck, ship, aircraft), the weight of the cargo, and the distance to the delivery destination.

2. Calculating freight (Chargeable weight)

Calculating freight for your product using cargo agency and airline methods are usually so complex that people dont even bother to figure them out. The fact is however that an importer can usually save up to 25% on the final cost of the product just by revising this process. The Shipping costs that an importer pays for is directly related to the Voume of the flower cargo occupies in the airplane. The airline will always take the higher of Volume weight and actual weight to determine the Chargeable weight relation. Importers that are aware know this is a formula used by the airlines that states if the volume of the boxes, divided by a weight factor is greater than the real weight, you pay for volume.

After assessing many importers around the world we have found out that most of the companies are wasting thousands of dollars paying for volume instead of the actual weight. The best time to weight and size your boxes is in origin so you can control and make sure you are being charge the right fare before your flowers leave, this is not easy when you are thousands of Kilometers away from Kenya, To fix this you need to know the sizes of the growers boxes (and each farm has many different box types and none are standard dimensions), and the real weight of the product.

The general formula of calculating volume weight is dimensions: (Length x Width x Height) / 6000

Using this information, you can compare the information with the cargo agency or airline reports, to ensure they are charging you the correct fees and that your farms are packing flowers efficiently.

So What ….?

Many suppliers add freight as a line on the invoice because they do not know what the cost of the freight will be until the order is packed and they know the volume of the order.

At Eagle-Link Flowers, through our sophisticated IT system, know very accurately at the time of order the exact cost of shipping a bunch of each type of flower to every destination. These costs vary very significantly for different flower types due to differences in weight/volume. We do not add any margin to the cost of freight so the price you pay for the flowers is exactly the same as if you collected it from our warehouse.

Because we are able to calculate both the freight cost and the volume on the fly, we are also able to tell you, as you order, what the freight cost of your order is. This helps ensure efficient freight costs for everybody.