Most companies negotiate carrier contracts, lock in their discounts, and move on. But shipping profiles change — and when they do, the contract you were so proud of may quietly stop working for you.

Contracts Are Written for “Then,” Not “Now”

When FedEx or UPS negotiated your rates, they used your shipping data from that moment in time. The discounts you received were tailored to the services, zones, and package sizes that made up the bulk of your spend then.

But shipping isn’t static. Product lines evolve, customer demand shifts, distribution networks change. A year later, your shipping mix looks different — but your discounts don’t.

The Hidden Cost of Misaligned Discounts

Here’s what happens when your contract falls out of sync:

• You may have deep discounts on a service you barely use anymore.
• Meanwhile, the service type that’s grown to 40% of your volume is discounted far less.
• Zone changes (e.g., more West Coast or residential deliveries) may expose you to higher DAS and residential fees with little relief.
• Package dimension shifts can suddenly make DIM weight charges your biggest expense driver.

On paper, it looks like you negotiated a strong deal. In reality, your dollars are flowing through the weakest parts of your contract.

Why Most Shippers Don’t Catch It

• Invoices hide it. Carriers don’t line-item which discounts you could be using versus which ones you are.
• Finance isn’t watching service mix. They see the total spend, not how it’s allocated by product.
• Ops is focused on getting packages out the door. They rarely have bandwidth to analyze contracts against shifting shipping patterns.

This is exactly how carriers design it. They know profiles shift faster than contracts, and they win when nobody revisits the alignment.

What Leading Shippers Do Differently

High-performing companies don’t just negotiate once and forget it. They:

• Review service type mix weekly to see where spend is going.
• Compare actual shipping behavior against contract terms at least quarterly.
• Re-negotiate mid-cycle when patterns shift significantly. Carriers may resist, but if the data is on your side, leverage exists.
• Use reporting tools to flag mismatches (e.g., high volume in a service type with low discounts).

This is how they ensure their discounts are always aligned with reality — not stuck in last year’s assumptions.

Why This Matters Heading Into Peak Season

Q4 amplifies every inefficiency. If your shipping profile is already out of sync with your contract, surcharges and seasonal demand fees will magnify the misalignment. You’ll enter the most expensive quarter of the year without the right coverage.

Closing Thought

Carrier contracts aren’t “set it and forget it.” They’re snapshots of your shipping at a single moment in time. When your mix changes and the contract doesn’t, you end up subsidizing your carrier’s profits instead of capturing your negotiated value.

If you haven’t reviewed your contract against your actual shipping mix in the last year, now is the time. Because the only thing worse than paying peak-season surcharges is realizing your discounts don’t even apply where you need them most.

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