Data-Driven Carrier Contract Optimization
Gain control over your total transportation spend with our data-driven carrier contract optimization. We analyze and negotiate your parcel, LTL, and FTL agreements to protect margins and deliver an average savings of 18-24% across all modes.
Trusted by leaders across industries
Why Carrier Contracts Are Costing You More Than You Think
High-volume shippers face financial risk from complex, volatile carrier contracts, lacking a data-driven strategy.
Market Volatility Erodes Your Budget
Constantly shifting carrier pricing makes outdated agreements costly, destabilizing shipping budgets and preventing accurate financial forecasts.
Masked Complexity Hides Savings
Successful optimization of intentionally complex carrier agreements requires uncovering buried terms and classifications to determine your true cost-to-serve.
Limited Resources Prevent Proactive Analysis
Focused on daily operations, your team lacks the tools and bandwidth to model rates or benchmark agreements, leaving savings on the table.
A Complete Carrier Contract Optimization Solution
Multi-Modal Market Rate Analysis
We leverage our proprietary database of current market rates to analyze your parcel, LTL, and FTL agreements, instantly revealing where you are overspending compared to the market.
Comprehensive Surcharge & Rules Analysis
We go beyond base rates to model the financial impact of every term, including accessorials, minimums, and GRIs. This uncovers the hidden costs that erode your margins.
Expert Negotiation Strategy
Our experts translate our market and surcharge analysis into a custom negotiation strategy, arming your team with the data-driven talking points needed to secure best-in-class carrier terms.
Turn Your Shipping Contracts into a Competitive Advantage
Protect Margins With an 18-25% Average Reduction in Spend
Our carrier contract optimization process identifies and eliminates overspending at the source. By optimizing rate structures and surcharge rules, you achieve sustainable cost reductions that directly improve profitability.
Achieve Total Budget Predictability and Control
Our modeling exposes the true cost impact of every contract term across every mode. This allows you to forecast transportation expenses with greater accuracy, eliminate surprise costs, and gain complete financial control.
Mitigate Risk and Improve Carrier Accountability
A properly optimized carrier contract ensures performance aligns with your business needs. We help you negotiate clearer terms for service levels, liability, and fees, increasing accountability and reducing risk.
How We Model Your True Carrier Costs in a Volatile Market
We analyze your shipping data to cut through the noise of complex contracts, establishing your true cost-to-serve as the factual leverage you need at the negotiating table.
Unifying Your Multi-Carrier Shipping Data
Our service aggregates and normalizes your complete shipment data from all parcel and freight carriers, creating a single, coherent view of your entire transportation network and spend.
Surcharge, Accessorial & Rule Exposure Analysis
We go beyond base rates to identify your financial exposure to variable costs. Our analysis pinpoints how GRIs, fuel, and specific accessorial charges from each carrier are impacting your budget.
Contract Performance & Budget Forecasting
We provide clear reports that measure the real-world performance of your current carrier contracts. This analysis allows you to forecast future spend with greater accuracy and build a budget based on data, not guesses.
Continuous Optimization & Savings Monitoring
Our service includes ongoing monitoring of carrier spend and performance, delivering reports that validate your savings and identify new optimization opportunities as your shipping profile and the market evolve.
Seamless Integration and Enterprise-Grade Security
Our SOC 2, Type II certified platform ensures your sensitive shipping and financial data is always protected. We provide the robust security and data integrity that enterprise IT and finance leaders require for complete peace of mind.
Core System Integrations
Connect directly with your existing ERP, WMS, and order management systems.
Seamless Data Exchange
We offer flexible data ingestion through API, EDI, or secure file transfer.
Our Carrier Contract Optimization Process
The AAAAIM Process
A
Assessment
We start by dissecting your current shipping contracts and shipment data to uncover cost-saving opportunities, crafting a baseline agreement that sets the foundation for your supply chain optimization.
A
Alignment
Collaborate on a strategy that resonates with your business goals, establishing a clear roadmap and participant list for negotiations that reflect your company’s needs and aspirations.
A
Advisement
Navigate the bid process with expert guidance, analyzing proposals and refining negotiations until the results align precisely with your vision for value and efficiency.
A
Agreement
Empower your decision-making with comprehensive support as you select the best-fit carrier, ensuring a smooth transition and accurate implementation of your new strategic direction.
I
Implementation
See your choices in action as we oversee the deployment of your carrier contracts, ensuring routing compliance and invoice accuracy that align with your operational and financial targets.
M
Maintenance
Stay ahead with proactive monitoring and intelligence reporting that not only maintains but elevates your freight spend efficiency, continually identifying new avenues for significant savings and optimization.
The Zero Down Advantage in Carrier Contract Optimization
While other solutions address specific pieces of the puzzle, Zero Down provides a truly comprehensive, end-to-end managed service. We act as an extension of your team to manage the entire lifecycle of your parcel spend, ensuring no savings are left on the table.
Capability
Traditional Service Providers
Self-Service Platforms
Strategy & Analysis
Continuous optimization powered by tech and experts.
Project-based analysis and reporting.
Analytics platform requires your team’s expertise.
Market Intelligence
Dynamic rate intelligence from a live data network.
Analysis derived from past consulting engagements.
Internal data analysis only; no market context.
Post-Negotiation Value
Ongoing savings validation & contract management.
Final report delivered at end of engagement.
Your team must manually monitor for compliance.
The Human Element
Ongoing strategic partnership with industry veterans.
Project-scoped senior consultant engagement.
Standard technical support for the platform.
Capability
Traditional Service Providers
Self-Service Platforms
Audit & Recovery
Fully Managed Recovery
Standardized Rules
Requires Manual Config
Contract Negotiation
Expert-Led Negotiation
Client-Led Process
Data Only
Claims Management
End-to-End Management
Limited Involvement
Full Burden on Client
Business Intelligence
Actionable, Strategic Insights
Standard Reporting
Raw Data Dashboards
Capability: Packaging Optimization
Proactive Analysis
Identify DIM weight and surcharge drivers to lower costs and improve sustainability.
Overlooked
Packaging inefficiencies and dimensional charges are often ignored.
Not Included
Your team must manage packaging analysis separately.
Trusted by High-Volume Shippers
VP, Supply Chain / Manufacturing / Supply Chain
500M – 1B USD
Intuitive Dashboard And Effective Data Analysis To Support Business Needs
Chief Financial Officer / Manufacturing / Finance
<50M USD
Zero Down Revolutionizes Transport Management With Cost-Effective Pricing And Support
Director Account Management / Transportation / Management / Business Consulting
3B – 10B USD
Zero Down's Solution Has Improved Visibility And Resulting In Net Savings
CFO / Manufacturing / Finance
<50M USD
Fantastic Service, Great Company To Work With
VP, Operations / Consumer Goods / Operations
500M – 1B USD
Better With Them Than Without
Frequently Asked Questions
Carrier contract optimization is the process of reviewing, analyzing, and renegotiating parcel, LTL, and FTL shipping agreements to ensure companies pay competitive rates. It is important because contracts often contain complex pricing structures, hidden surcharges, and variable terms that make it difficult to manage costs and forecast budgets accurately.
Each mode has unique cost structures:
- Parcel contracts include dimensional weight rules, minimum charges, and tiered discounts.
- LTL contracts use class-based pricing, base rate tariffs, and negotiated discounts.
- FTL contracts are typically lane-based with fuel surcharges and accessorials.
Optimization must be tailored to each mode to capture all potential savings.
Common hidden costs include:
- Accessorial fees (liftgate, residential delivery, limited access)
- Fuel surcharges
- Minimum shipment charges
- Annual general rate increases (GRIs). These charges can add up to 20–30% of total transportation spend if not carefully managed.
Savings vary by shipper, but most companies achieve 10–25% reductions in transportation costs when contracts are analyzed, benchmarked, and renegotiated based on accurate data. Zero Down clients average 18–24% in savings across parcel, LTL, and FTL modes.
These variable charges often make up a significant portion of overall spend. For example, fuel surcharges can fluctuate weekly, GRIs increase base rates annually, and accessorials can be applied inconsistently. Without oversight, they create budget uncertainty and reduce profitability.
Zero Down combines deep contract analysis, market rate benchmarking, and data-driven negotiation strategies. By modeling scenarios and comparing rates against a proprietary database of parcel and freight benchmarks, we identify the best opportunities and give shippers the leverage needed to negotiate more competitive terms.
- Data Integration & Analysis – Importing and analyzing your shipment data across all modes.
- Strategy & Modeling – Identifying savings opportunities with detailed contract modeling.
- Negotiation Support – Equipping your team with data to negotiate effectively
- Performance Tracking – Validating savings and monitoring compliance over time.
Data modeling allows shippers to simulate the financial impact of different contract terms. For example, you can test how changes to minimum charges or discount tiers affect total spend. This insight helps negotiators focus on the areas that will drive the greatest savings.
Yes. Zero Down continuously monitors shipment data to ensure carriers apply the correct rates and fees. We validate savings, flag discrepancies, and provide reporting so shippers maintain long-term control of their transportation spend.
Our platform centralizes all carrier pricing logic, applies it to your historical shipment data, and generates clear dashboards. This creates a single source of truth for cost-to-serve, enabling smarter negotiations and ongoing visibility into transportation performance.
Yes. Zero Down supports integrations with leading ERP, WMS, and TMS systems. Data can flow through APIs, EDI, or secure file transfer, making implementation flexible and non-disruptive.