I had read this recently on the NSFE, but just experienced it myself. The cost of UPS / LTL shipments with Amazon-partnered carriers seems to have skyrocketed when selecting the option “Amazon-optimized shipments”. As an example, see screenshots below:
This is crazy - I understand that there are some problems with receving times in West Coast FCs, but the difference is just insane.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary when I look at it. 5 shipments @ $752 for nationwide distro seems like the minimums for any LTL shipment at an average of $150.
Here is my last oversize shipment at $780 to AZ, TX and IN from Los Angeles. 4 pallets to 3 destinations averaging $195/pallet @500lbs each.
The minimums for LTL might be where you are getting hammered. The closer you are to the 200lb rate the worse bang for your buck with LTL.
But, in this case, shipment was for 5 boxes of 42 lbs each, making the cost for the optimized splits extremely expensive.
Well in your 2/3 shipment split seems fine at $.55/lb or $.37/lb. Most likely your 5 shipment splits are going across the nation for distro compared to the other two.
When we make 2/3 shipment splits from LA, they go to CA, AZ and now OR. When we make 5 they go IL, TX, FL, DE, WA making the prices shoot upward.
When we make shipments from Omaha, 2 splits go to TX and IL, but 5 shipment splits go CA, FL, TX, DE, and TN which costs more in freight by a lot.
$1.5+ is high but it all depends on the destination and if it is going to a new RC or something. You won’t know unless you make a shipment and actually see the destination splits and price breakdown.
This is the reason why Amazon says you have the option to let them do it internally or you can let UPS tell you how much it will be.
I made a 5 case shipment out of GA to test. And this is what I came up with.
There were multiple posts in the NSFE yesterday (102424) about this, including some reports that Seller Support was aware of a technical glitch being in play, but several of those folks reported back later in the day that the problem had been fixed for them.
Oh, how I dislike Amazon’s annual Glitchmas Season…
Attempting to send 4 - 50 pound boxes and additional charges were $61 per box?
Abandoned the effort will try it again to day to see if it was a glitch.
It does seem that the overall cost of SPD is a little higher. I’ve noticed the creep upward when I calculate things on a per-unit basis.
Could that be due to seasonal rates and surcharges?
I just noticed that KJ_Amazon posted this, a few hours ago, in one of the NSFE discussions about this; purportedly, Amazon (which, as is often enough par for the course, blames the glitch on UPS) will be issuing refunds to sellers who - under the gun of the looming Holiday Season - bit the bullet and consummated FBA Inbound Shipments under those constraints:
It will be interesting to note whether or not said refunding comes to pass…
Exactly my thoughts. Good to see, at least in theory, that they’re aiming to remedy this.
