 At Tailwind, we are experts in expedited shipping. Expedited is a type of shipping that provides faster delivery than standard shipping. It is often used for time-sensitive or urgent packages, such as those containing perishable goods or important documents. Expedited shipping typically involves using faster transportation methods, such as air freight or express courier services, and may also involve skipping certain steps in the shipping process, such as sorting and processing, to speed up delivery.
There are several benefits to using expedited shipping, including:
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 If you run or are involved in running a business, you’ll fall into one of these two groups. For some businesses, using a courier service is a once in a while event born out of convenience or a necessary bailout of a tricky situation. For others, it’s a weekly or even daily necessity integral to their operations. When your project is overdue, that print run just completed and your event is already in progress, you have a critical part that needs to get 200 miles away today, or an item that has to be delivered direct to a client in their office, having a trusted courier to call on is a priceless investment. In this situation, you’re trading money for time and convenience, and a local courier who knows how to service customers will make the convenience factor very apparent. Let’s say for example this was an item that you could feasibly drive there yourself. By the time you factored in all the time and gas money, not to mention an entire work day of productivity lost, it wouldn’t at all be worth it.  This is precisely where a good business relationship will pay dividends- clients will be impressed or at the very least not lost, when they see that you’re doing whatever it takes to successfully deliver that project. Think of it as business insurance. Plus, it makes for a great story that impresses. And we all know, great stories are retold. “Dave, we just finished the prototypes this morning and we’re exclusively flying them to you so you’ll have them in hand this afternoon.” Who do you think is more likely to win that account- the company who has the confidence to do whatever it takes to get things there immediately, or the one who snail mails it a week later?  Couriers serve a different role in businesses that have weekly or daily delivery needs. These often include time sensitive, unconventionally shaped, exposed or heavy items that would take too long to deliver via major carrier. And in many cases, those typical carriers wouldn’t even be able to transport these items to begin with. Many companies we work with have regular or periodic samples, or critical parts that need to return to service right away. If you’re involved in industrial applications, you know that downtime is your worst nightmare. Depending on your size, it can cost anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands or more per hour! So now it should be painfully obvious how the quickest transportation of your critical parts can save you at the minimum, many thousands of dollars. Take the case of overnighting an item vs flying or ground transporting it same day- it will be a difference of 10-12 hours, saving you at least $20,000 based on a $2000/hr worth of units produced  Often, the ease of working with a local courier is alone worth it. Imagine if you had to fill out a lengthy and detailed form and possibly even pay with a credit card every time you had a task for your in-office contractors. You would quickly begin to dread the process. Instead, when you work with a local courier, ordering a pickup is easy as shooting off an email, text, or call if that's your preference. Not to mention, you’ll often get payment terms by setting up an account, and you’ll have time to batch pay consolidated invoices at your leisure instead of rushing to prepay each and every time.
 Our Tailwind Guide to Choosing Shipping Options is a handy chart to help you learn about the cost vs speed of different courier shipping options. Choosing and understanding your expedited shipping options can sometimes get a little confusing, so allow us to clear things up for you. Just check out the chart above or download on the bottom of this post. Hey, you just might learn something new! We have three general rush shipping options to choose from. It's best to think of them based on what you need- Same Day Far Away (Expedited Air- about 600 miles), Next Day Anywhere (Air Cargo Network), and Same Day 500 Miles or Less, (Expedited Ground). The best choice for you often comes down to your needs and budget. Let's start with the quickest and most premium priced, Expedited Air. This is the best choice for relatively smaller critical deliveries that need to go generally under 600 to 750 miles away. Items can include even palletized cargo up to about a van load, depending on aircraft, yet most of the time shipments are smaller items. This is a white glove process that mobilizes dedicated ground transportation and aircraft to get your item door to door the quickest way possible. And so, even unboxed or uncrated items are safe to ship. There aren't any schedules to accommodate, lines or queues. We wrangle the closest free vehicle, pick up your shipment and get it on a smaller dedicated aircraft right away. It's then flown direct to the closest small airport to your destination. Upon arrival, ground transportation whisks it away to its final destination. It's the quickest offering- there's no other way to get it there any faster. Yet it can be cheaper than you think, provided you have more volume. Although, it can be sensitive to things like weather and shipment size, so choose carefully. Keep in mind, this sort of service can also really begin to make sense as part of an overnight middle mile solution as well. If you have regular customers and are offering overnight shipping, a plane load, combined with final mile ground transportation can easily service more widespread and rural areas much more quickly than standard overnight air cargo. This would allow you to get up to a couple pallets worth of items to your customers with ease, in addition to giving you more time margin to collect and sort those orders- something that ground-only transportation can't provide. Do you have an overnight or two day shipment involving at least one box measuring over 20 inches? Forget about Fedex- give us a call for better pricing and service. Your second option is best for next day service, and can sometimes even accomplish same day service (yet this takes at least one day lead time). Utilizing our next day air cargo network, we're able to get your shipment across the country with ease. Often, dedicated or semi-dedicated vehicles are used to pickup your items, which can be boxed, crated or palletized, and flown via one of our air partners to the destination of your choice. Our ground transport is waiting right on the other end to pickup and deliver your shipment to its endpoint, whether that's a business or commercial address. For long distance shipments, this is generally the best cost/speed combination. The only caveats are possible weather delays and if your delivery destination is far outside a metro area, which can add some time and cost. Finally, there's our Expedited Ground option. Whether you have boxes, envelopes, or palletized items, this is the most economically priced, and definitely the fastest under about 110 or so miles. Based on your needs, items are likely going direct from pickup to delivery. That means no staging and shuttling between terminals or other costly delays. We can usually accommodate same day orders, dispatching a driver to pickup your item as soon as your order is paid for and shipping details are put into our system. As always, we can also easily provide daily same day service as part of your middle miles to keep your or your customers inventory flowing reliably. Ultimately, the speed of service is dictated by your needs. But some choices are made for you by circumstance. Stamford CT to San Francisco CA by the next day? Our overnight air cargo is the way to go. Likewise, if you have a few boxes that need to get from Edison NJ to Bethlehem PA, it will be there in a few hours with one of our dedicated vans. NYC to Raleigh, NC same day? If there's a cutoff time, it has to be flown direct- door to door in about 4.5 hours. Just need it there same day? It can go via dedicated ground. A 9AM pickup would have it there by 7PM. The world of expedited courier shipping and delivery can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. Hopefully this post gives you some solid insight behind the different shipping options you have available. Any questions, feel free to reach out to us here or simply call 732 979 2293. We look forward to working with you!
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AuthorI'm Stephen, owner and head agent of Tailwind Delivery. Archives
December 2022
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