Subscribe“Featherweight Gold” is a business term that describes the value ExpressCube can bring to warehouse and shipping operations.
"Featherweight Gold" is a business term that describes the value ExpressCube can bring to warehouse and shipping operations. Companies that ship large volumes of light boxes can find Featherweight Gold by using the economic ExpressCube device for Inbound and Outbound DIM precision to yield savings, optimization and customer value.
We had the opportunity to talk to Andrew Moonilal, Senior Manager of Operations at Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada Distribution Centre in Concord, Ontario. Harley-Davidson, Inc. is the parent company for the group of companies doing business as Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Buell Motorcycle Company and Harley-Davidson Financial Services,
Inc. Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada is the exclusive distributor in Canada for Harley-Davidson Motor Company, the only major U.S.-based motorcycle manufacturer which produces heavyweight motorcycles and offers a complete line of motorcycle parts, accessories, apparel, and general merchandise. Buell Motorcycle Company produces sport motorcycles in addition to motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel.
His operation is responsible for shipping Harley Davidson and Buell products across Canada. He is an enthusiastic fan of the ExpressCube that is used by his warehouse team to bring "Feather Weight Gold" to Harley Davidson. "Feather Weight Gold" is a business term that does not Google. ("Google" is an Internet search engine.) It refers to companies that ship large volumes of boxes that contain light weight products. For these large volume operations, making sure that courier fees are calculated properly is critical for a profitable operation. Some background. It is important that "Feather Weight Gold" package shipper obtain the dimensioning factor (Dim Factor) that is going to be used by a particular carrier. This number is usually published on carrier websites. For example, the shipper would take a Dim Factor of 194 (a popular Dim Factor with large carriers) and use it to divide the volume calculation. Therefore, the Dim Weight equation is (L x H x W)/194. The shipper now has two weights, the actual scale weight and the calculated Dim Weight. The carriers will base their charges on the higher figure, and, for the lighter and bulkier items, it is usually Dim Weight. Ignoring the new reality of Dim Weight and provide inaccurate information face an ever-increasing stream of supplemental charges and costly fines from their carrier, usually sent to the shipper long after the package's arrival. Here is an example.
Here is what Andrew said about his experience with ExpressCube:
"I work out of the Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada's Distribution Centre in Concord, Ontario. Our facility is responsible for shipping thousands of pieces a week of Harley Davidson and Buell products across the country. We ship a broad array of bike parts, accessories and clothing. They vary in size and weight. My team ships genuine Harley Davidson motor accessories such as engine components, windshields, electronics and mufflers. We also ship lighter weight and some times bulky collectibles, jackets, helmets and gloves. Altogether, thousands of pieces are shipped in a week out of the shipping department. In the carrier world, they tend to bill you on the "worst of two" either dead weight or
cube (or dimensional) weight.
As Harley Davidson is in the "Feather Weight Gold" business, we could have a small box that contains a battery that weighs 50 pounds but cubes out at 5 pounds or a part in a huge box that cubes out at 50 with a part that weighs 3 pounds. We wanted to see what type of freight mix we had and how we could be better utilizing the cube versus the weight. It was important to get a handle on our freight expense. Dimensional Weight is a big issue for us and we did not want to rely on the carriers to tell us based on what we are shipping them. We wanted to study our freight for now before we actually went to the carrier world and say we are cubing our freight what ever we declare it is that must be accepted.
It was also operationally important to look and cube per foot density to maximize the cubing in a box from a freight standpoint. So we searched the market place for the best Dimensioning technology. We liked the ExpressCube™ counter top system because of a few of its unique attributes. We were able to get it operating in 5 minutes. It did not require any special lighting conditions nor was affected by the close proximity of other devices and it had the ability to measure dimensions quickly and quietly. Its price is also significantly less than competitors with no compromise of effectiveness. Now all our non-conforming boxes are scaled using ExpressCube. We download the system through serial cable to a PC capturing our carton IDs and then running it off of our home system. We are studying the freight in that manner. We will be working with our couriers going forward.
There has been another great outcome from ExpressCube. It has helped my shipping room staff to really see the impact of making assumptions about DIM weight. This is a real step forward. It helps them understand the real cost of freight. They now come to me and say: 'Andrew, did you know this costs $80 to ship where before they did not know.' They have become more conscious and very involved with solutions.
"For companies shipping 100s to 1000s packages a week, the ExpressCube range of dimensioning devices are an easy to use devise that will pay for itself in months.
Express Cube systems use of advanced technology engineering resulted in a superior product that is more economical than comparable systems on the market. The ExpressCube products are precision devices that are quiet, utilize flexible interface communications and are highly adaptable to a wide variety of working environments. Our new patent-pending dimensional arrays are safe - there are no lasers used in any of our products.
ExpressCube counter top cubing systems can help eliminate shipping penalty charges by letting shippers use their courier's dimensional weight factor (DIM factor) to accurately determine the shipping weight used to calculate their invoices. Using ExpressCube's own SizeIt program or our API interface for third party shipping programs; shippers now have the opportunity of saving money by comparing courier/ shipping rates for a given dimension, weight and destination.