Peak season shipping starts now, and it is no easy feat. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, that means, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and New Year are within arms reach too. These holidays put a lot of strain on the shipping world, and it’s not only small parcels racing against the clock to your front porches, oversized and overweight shipments also struggle through the later months of the year, especially through December where constraint is stacked on constraint. These include: state permit offices working reduced hours, DOT no-travel window restrictions around the major holidays, daylight only rules if you require escorts, crews booked all of the way through the busy holiday periods, receivers running skeleton shifts and tackling the winter weather.

Between mid November and early January, the freight industry is under the most pressure that they experience through the whole year. Here are the common challenges carriers and shippers see and what you can do during the peak season of shipping to overcome obstacles and keep your shipments on track.

What Actually Changes In The Peak Season For Shippers?

There’s a lot that changes during holiday shipping periods, and it’s not just about busier schedules, although this plays a HUGE part. It’s a whole domino effect of tighter regulations, limited daylight, staff holidays and unpredictable weather. Here’s a look at some of the more common challenges shippers and logistics partners face each year in this season and how to prepare for them:

1. Gaining permits might take longer than usual 📑

Gaining permits in time for shipping your over dimensional and overweight goods is what keeps your freight moving. Without them, your freight stands at a crossroads without the ability to move, this not only racks up costs, but can also delay your goods by days to weeks! So, it’s not great news that permit offices run on minimal, skeleton staff during busy holiday periods and on the major holiday dates some are closed entirely. These closures make things extra tricky, but here’s some proven tactics that we’ve learned over the decades that keep our customers freight moving.

How can we still secure permits when offices work reduced hours?

1. Preplan and submit multi-state requests – If you’re moving freight across multiple states, don’t wait for one states approval before submitting to the next. Each states permit offices work at different speeds, and this could cause unnecessary hold ups.
2. Look into and preplan alternative routes – An alternative route might offer faster transit times and different travel hours, which could work out best for your schedule. Some states allow multiple approved paths under one permit, so check your permits thoroughly.
3. Legalize shipments where possible – Your freight might only just exceed limits by a couple of inches or lbs that make them require special permits. If you can, dismantle pieces of cargo to bring them within the legal dimension limits and eliminate the need for extra permits, to keep the process as simple as possible.
4. Track closure calendars – Build in plenty of lead time, so if you know there’s a a major holiday coming up then it’s imperative to apply for your permits well in advance. Allow at least 5 days for a regular permit and between 7-10 days for a multi-state permit. State agencies typically announce modified hours weeks in advance, so keep up to date with these and regularly check for any changes that could affect your shipments.

2. Shortened and no travel windows over holidays ⏰

Most states have travel restrictions for oversize and overweight freight in any given week. However, around peak season, shipping restrictions are even stricter. Take Thanksgiving for example in most states they restrict heavy haul transportation the day before Thanksgiving right up until the following Monday, the main reason for this is because of the expected increase in traffic on our roads during the holidays. Increased traffic minus heavy haul movement helps to make our roads that bit safer.

On your regular winters day, movement windows are also shortened. The movement of heavy haul freight is usually granted just 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset, so with shorter daylight hours in the winter months, comes a smaller window of time for this type of freight movement. A ton of states also add restrictions around peak travel times, weekends, night moves, etc. So it’s important to always check your route for state specific restrictions.

How do we work around shorter travel windows?

There are a few ways to work around limited travel windows. They don’t need to stop your shipments, a tighter strategy is just needed to be put in place. Here’s a few strategies we’ve found to work over the years like a treat!

1. Pre-stage freight strategically – Utilizing freight hubs, warehouses, consolidation centers and cross-docking facilities to strategically stage your freight near state borders, means that your freight can hit the ground running as soon as the movement window opens the following day.
2. Use daylight hours to our advantage – As we get further into the season, daylight hours shorten even more, in fact the shortest day of the year in the USA is December 21st. The only way around these shorter travel windows, is to use these daylight hours to our advantage, which can be done by planning refuelling stops and breaks outside of permitted movement windows, to maximise permitted movement hours. Although, it’s probably a good idea to include here that we always make sure this is within legal limits. 😊
3. Monitor live updates, delays and restrictions – The last thing anyone wants is to be caught up in congestion and other delayed traffic situations, especially when movement windows are slim as it is, that is wasted precious movement time. Luckily for us, each state’s department of transportation (DOT) posts real-time updates and by tuning into other live update technologies and using real time tracking we’re able to stay ahead and reroute where possible.

3. Weather issues 🌨

Unpredictable weather can seriously throw off any plans you have with your freight partner. For example, as we’re writing this Nashville has just had a day of snow and a temperature of 24 degrees fahrenheit (-4 celcius) but, this weekend is seeing temperatures of 74 degrees fahrenheit (23 celcius) and that’s just one example of how unpredictable our seasons can be. Making these months extremely hard to predict and make arrangements for in the U.S.

Weather conditions like snow, ice, high winds, flooding and freezing temperatures slow down entire logistics supply chains. For any heavy haul, oversize shipments any slight change in the weather can alter travel plans completely. High winds can make moving tall or wide freight unsafe and icy conditions can close highways. In certain instances the DOT of the state have been known to temporarily suspend oversize travel altogether due to safety concerns. So how do we work around this?

How can we prepare better for severe weather changes?

1. Build in buffer days – As you can tell by now, most of these challenges can be worked around by building in extra time. If we are hit with any extreme weather, flooding, snow, high winds, etc. it can easily add on an extra 24-48 hours to a shipping time. So, it’s important to have flexibility.
2. Monitor weather forecasts closely – It’s common for shippers to only check the origin and destination of their freight weather forecasts. However, don’t forget to keep up to date with all areas throughout your shipments route for better planning.
3. Prepare your freight accordingly – If you’re shipping oversize, overweight freight that is exposed to the elements on an open air trailer, then it’s super important to make sure your cargo won’t be affected by the weather. If there’s a chance it will, seek alternative packaging and options to move your freight as cautiously as possible.

4. Possible price increase for shipping 💰

Peak shipping season sees demand sky rocket, hence the name: peak season and unfortunately so do shipping costs. This is seen across the board for all kinds of freight, and the reason being is because capacity is reduced, there’s a higher fuel consumption in the colder winter months, and the sheer competition for drivers, equipment, and escorts is high.

The scarcity in available truck space is the number one factor to the rising costs at this time of the year. With shippers having booked up carrier availability from November onwards with pre-planned shipments meaning we see a premium price tag on last minute shipments, particularly on expedited moves.

Coming in at close second adding to the additional cost is fuel surcharges and other weather related costs. But, what do we mean by higher fuel consumption? and why do we use more fuel in winter? Well, you see in the colder weather engines take longer to reach operating temperature, and require a richer fuel mix to warm up, add in cold air increasing drag and reducing fuel economy and you’ve got the perfect (not so perfect for drivers) mix for increased fuel usage. So again, let’s look at how we can help you to steer clear of price hikes.

How can we mitigate these increases and get you the best rate possible?

1. Book your loads as early as possible – The sooner you can secure truck space, or any kind of logistics space in fact, whether that’s by rail, air, sea or road you can benefit from more favorable rates and have greater control over transit schedules.
2. Make flexible decisions – If you can, allow for a few days of wiggle room on pick up and delivery dates, as this will help you to avoid paying for expedited services, should anything go wrong or change.
3. Consolidate your freight – Consolidating your freight can significantly reduce your shipping costs. So if you can, this could be a very useful tip to saving some cash.
4. Clear communication with your freight partner – Be clear from the outset, let your shipping partner know what your number one goal is, whether that’s to do things as low cost as possible or if you prioritize speed. This way your partner can build a plan for your freight that suits your individual needs.

5. Managing human factors, driver, crew and receiver vacation days 🗓

This one is more on us, or any other logistics partner you choose, but it can make a huge difference if you work with a partner that implements these strategies. So, let’s start by thinking, who doesn’t like to take some vacation days around the holidays? By Christmas we’re all tired and it’s been a long 365 days, everyone needs and is entitled to a well earned break with their loved ones, to spend the most wonderful time of the year together. But, this makes organising holidays and hours of service at this time of the year imperative to be able to offer fair holiday opportunities to staff while also keeping things moving, because at the end of the day, freight don’t wait.

How do we mitigate staff holidays to keep your shipments on schedule?

1. Plan holiday schedules early – The key to moving freight smoothly through the busy periods we’ve found is getting everyone’s vacation request forms in early, we’re talking the absolute latest they need to be in is November. This way staffing cover can be arranged in advance. This strategy can be implemented across all business types, including shippers.
2. Be realistic about hours of service – Following on from the above, build a schedule that provides cover while also, being realistic about hours of service limits and rest cycles, people could burn out quickly if they’re overworked to cover holidays. If we’re talking drivers, this can also become extremely dangerous if they don’t get the right amount of downtime.
3. Keep a high morale – Peak season is stressful! Small gestures can go a long way and can keep staff motivated through the holidays.
4. Use technology to stay on the same page – Shared calendars and digital check-ins help everyone to stay on the same page, especially when staff work remotely.

So, how can we handle peak season shipping together? 😊

As you can tell from reading this, peak season shipping of any kind of freight takes more planning and preparation than any other time of the year. At the end of the day, peak season shipping is a reflection of supply and demand, mixed in with a ton of extra tricky  variables but with a good freight partner and thorough planning, costs can be managed strategically and not reactively. Which will  help you to stick to your shipping budget and keep your freight on track, because, this time of year can throw even the most experienced shippers budgets and plans out of the window, if they don’t prior plan and make arrangements ahead of schedule.

But what we think is great, is that if you’re reading this blog then you’ve found us! Although we don’t want to toot our own horn too much, we must tell you, we are experts in handling urgent, non-standard and expedited freight, which comes in super handy during this season and what makes us more valuable to shippers during this time is that we’re available 24/7/365. Meaning, you could have a major freight problem on Christmas morning at 5am (let’s hope not), but guess what, if you do you can simply pick up your cell and call us directly to speak to one of our expert team, that’s right an actual member of the team will be there to help you through the stress, think of us as Santa’s little helper.

Don’t wait too long to get your shipments pencilled in, the festive period is falling upon us, fast!

We can’t wait to hear from you, call us directly on: Phone: 888-SHIP-911 or use the link below to get in touch 😊

Need help with any of your specialized oversize and high-value domestic shipments this holiday season?

Today can be the day you stop struggling with your logistics problems.

At PEI we’re experts in dealing with specialized freight and can handle yours with any custom requirements.