Unishippers' Express Manager
Better than Ever

Express Manager, Unishippers' online shipping tool for express and ground, has undergone significant updates to facilitate the processing of UPS^® air, ground and international shipments. This powerful, one-stop shipping solution saves money and eliminates hassles by providing price quotes, label creation, shipment tracking and many other time saving benefits – several of which are new to this latest version of Express Manager.

Express Manager is available at no cost to Unishippers customers. Some of the unique advantages of Express Manager include:

• Get immediate cost estimates before shipping so you can be sure you are getting the best price and service level to fit your needs
• Greater accuracy by eliminating hand-written labels
• Tracking of all the labels you prepare on the site, making the entry of long tracking numbers unnecessary
• A simple, intuitive interface that allows the creation of labels in less than one minute
• No software to download – Express Manager is web based, making it compatible with just about any computer and operating system
• The ability to schedule package pickup in one easy step
• A mailing list feature facilitating simple delivery arrangement of same-sized packages to multiple customers
• An improved and simplified label creation tool
• A fully integrated shipment history, combining all of your express and freight shipments in one place

As sophisticated as Express Manager has become with this most recent upgrade, there are even more features that will be added in the near future. These include a multi-piece shipment capability, secure online payment and an improved tracking feature that will enable instant status updates of every package en route.

Whether you're new to Express Manager or have used it in the past, every Unishippers UPS customer should take advantage of this new and improved shipping online tool. It will make your shipping process smoother, more convenient and more efficient than ever before.

Customer Chronicles
Business is Cooking at Abuelo's Mexican Restaurants

Food Concepts International (FCI), parent company of Abuelo’s Mexican restaurants (www.abuelos.com), has been tantalizing the taste buds of Mexican food lovers across the country for the last twenty years. The company, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, currently has 40 locations in 15 states throughout the nation, with its corporate office located in Lubbock, TX.

Since its first opening in 1989, Abuelo's has continually been on the leading edge of menu creativity and has garnered recognition and accolades for its innovative dishes, beautiful courtyard-inspired interiors, and its community involvement. As Abuelo’s has grown, so has the company’s need to provide its many locations with supplies, business forms, and other items. To help keep the busy company humming and keep hungry guests happy, Abuelo’s is reliant on quick, efficient express and ground shipping.

In the early days of the company, Abuelo's tried to manage their own shipping, and the results weren't always optimal. "We discovered early on that doing it all on our own was very challenging and expensive," recalls Greg Baker, the company’s VP of IT. "When we started shipping with Unishippers, we were just looking for a better solution. They delivered in a big way, and have earned our business for over ten years now."

One of the many advantages that Abuelo's enjoys in its partnership with Unishippers is access to Express Manager, Unishippers' online shipping tool for UPS. "We send packages to our stores every week, which with another shipping partner could be a huge hassle," says Greg. "We use Unishippers' Express Manager tool daily, and we love it. It provides us with itemized billing and account breakdowns, and our Accounting department greatly appreciates that. Express Manager just works."

Besides the benefits of Express Manager, Abuelo’s also appreciates the decade of excellent customer service Unishippers has provided. "Customer service with Unishippers has been very, very good," Greg shares. "The ability to have a one-stop shop for issues and problem resolution with the carrier is invaluable. Being able to count on someone to help manage our shipping and be a partner frees us up to focus on our core business."

That core business – serving some of the best Mexican food in the country at very reasonable prices – has allowed Abuelo's to grow and thrive for the last twenty years. As Abuelo’s looks toward future success and expansion, Unishippers will be with the company every step of the way. "To have a partner that takes care of all the shipping details of your business allows us to focus on what we do best – providing our guests with an excellent dining experience" Greg enthuses. "That's why we stay with Unishippers – so we just don't have to worry; they'll take care of it."

Did U Know?
Perfecting the Packaging Process

There are many items to worry about when making shipping arrangements: arranging pickup time, filling out the label or BOL correctly, accurate rate estimates, etc. While all of these things are important, an item that is equally important, but often overlooked, is proper packaging.

Using too much, too little or the wrong kind of packaging can result in higher parcel charges, and delayed or damaged shipments. A little knowledge and extra effort goes a long way in helping to avoid these issues. The following tips are easy ways to ensure that your packaging process is a help, and not a hindrance, to a successful shipment:

• Measure your boxes before you ship. Keeping your box dimensions two inches below the additional surcharge measurements will save you money if the box bulges when stacked.
• If you are sending multiple, lightweight packages to the same address, use the same box to ship them in. By avoiding the mandatory minimum shipping charge for multiple boxes, as well as paying a single fuel surcharge, you will usually offset the increase in billed weight.
• Don’t be stingy with packaging and filler material. It’s not worth saving a few cents on packaging materials by risking damaged shipments and/or repackaging costs.
• At the same time, avoid excessive packaging, which can result in higher parcel charges than necessary. Use common sense when deciding the appropriate amount of packaging and filler.

By perfecting your packaging process, you can ensure that your shipment arrives at its destination in the most cost-effective, timely and undamaged manner possible.

Saving You Time, Trouble and Money
Dim Weights: What You Need to Know

Accurately declaring shipment dimensions is more important now than ever before. As carriers struggle with lower shipment volumes and revenues, they are performing more audits that result in back charges.

The easiest way to avoid these issues is to ensure that you are consistently and accurately declaring the dimensions of every item you ship. It only takes a few seconds to measure the exact height, length and width of your shipment, but it can be very costly in terms of time and money to have a dispute with your carrier when back charges are incurred due to incorrect information.

A good rule of thumb with dim weights is that it is generally more cost-effective to ship smaller, denser packages than larger, lighter ones. This is because boxes of large, light items take up more valuable space in trucks without adding much weight. Being judicious in your usage of packing and filler materials, along with compressing your shipment into the smallest boxes common sense dictates will help you avoid unnecessary charges.

The formulas for calculating dim weight vary between ground, international and freight shipments. For both domestic air and ground shipments, the formula is Length X Width X Height / 194. For international shipments, the formula is Length X Width X Height / 166. For domestic freight, the factors of 194, 225 and 250 are commonly used. Your local Unishippers representative will be happy to assist you with this and any other aspect of your shipment. As noted, when it comes to dim weight, a little up front effort saves a lot of time, trouble and money later.

The Problem with UPS Preprints: Using Automation Saves Time and Money

While it may be more comfortable to continue to ship with preprints, there are some significant downsides to using "Preprint" labels (the user hand-prints the delivery address). As a result, we strongly encourage our UPS customers to use automated tools such as Express Manager, UPS.com, or WorldShip to prepare all of your labels. This will result in more accurate billing and can save you time and money.

We have identified the following issues that can occur when customers use preprints or any type of hand-printed waybill when processing a UPS package:

Extra Fees for Ground & 3-Day Shipments
If a manual waybill is used for a ground or 3-Day shipment, you will be charged a $5 accessorial fee.

Increased Incidence of Delivery Problems
When a hand-printed waybill is created, human errors often creep in that can be avoided by using an automated system. Common mistakes include delayed or missed deliveries due to bad addresses.

Incomplete Address Information on Invoice
UPS does not enter the full consignee address information into their systems, so the billing information that they give to Unishippers only contains the company name along with the city, state and ZIP for the consignee. “Attention to” and street address information are not given to us, so it will not show on your Unishippers invoice.

UPS Can Bill Preprints to the Wrong Account
When Preprints are used, the information is entered manually. Human intervention can cause inaccurate entry which can in turn result in the shipment being billed to the wrong account, even though the label had the correct account number printed on it.

For the above reasons, we strongly encourage our customers that use Preprints to use one of the free online automation solutions. By so doing, you can ensure that your overall shipping experience will be more positive.