Five ways to cut sea freight costs this year

Ocean rates swing wildly, but most of what importers pay is avoidable. These five levers come straight from our quoting desk, ranked by how fast they pay back.

• Consolidate LCL into FCL. Three cubic metres shipped monthly as LCL usually costs more than one shared 20ft box per quarter.
• Book the slower sailing. A 28-day transit instead of 21 often saves 15–20% — plan inventory around it once and pocket the difference all year.
• Free your detention days. Pre-cleared documents and booked trucking before arrival avoid demurrage that dwarfs the freight bill.
• Repack for the box. Half-empty cartons waste paid volume; a packaging review typically recovers 8–12% of container space.
• Fix rates quarterly. Locking a lane for three months beats spot-booking through every spike.

Demurrage is the most expensive line on most freight invoices — and the most avoidable.

Bring us your last three freight invoices and we will benchmark each of these levers against your lanes, free. Most importers find double-digit savings in the first review.