Summary

RoadRunner ships electric scooters weighing 85 to 150 pounds and costing thousands of dollars each. Every shipment carried real freight cost and real damage risk. Rebuilding how those units were classified, packaged and routed cut shipping cost by more than 25%.

The situation

RoadRunner didn't have a demand problem. Their premium electric scooters were selling and the direct-to-consumer business was growing.

The problem was what each sale cost to deliver. At 85 to 150 pounds and thousands of dollars per unit, there's no such thing as a small shipping inefficiency. Every order carried freight cost, damage exposure, and a customer expecting fast delivery on something expensive.

Three things were driving it:

Freight was being priced against the wrong variables. Dimensional weight, freight class, carrier choice, packaging and routing all move the number on heavy goods, and none of them were being managed together.

Fulfillment wasn't standardized. High-value product needs repeatable handling. Without it, errors rise and so does damage.

No unit-level visibility. Which scooter went to which customer was hard to answer, which made warranty claims and support slower than they needed to be.

What we did

Analyzed the freight from the ground up. Actual dimensions, actual weights, packaging configuration, freight classification, carrier pricing and routing, evaluated together rather than one at a time.

Rebuilt carrier selection. Carriers matched to shipment profile and destination instead of defaulting to one method, with rates negotiated against real volume.

Improved packaging. Configuration changes that reduced billable dimensions without reducing protection, which lowers cost on every shipment rather than on one negotiation.

Standardized fulfillment workflows. Consistent handling, processing and quality checks on every unit.

Added serialization tracking. Each scooter tied to a specific customer order, so any unit can be traced end to end. That turned warranty validation from a research project into a lookup.

Results

Freight cost down more than 25%. Because shipping was one of the largest line items in the business, that fell straight to margin on every order.

Faster fulfillment without loosening the handling that expensive product requires.

Unit-level traceability, so support can answer which scooter went where and warranty claims resolve against a record instead of a guess.

Lower damage exposure. Standardized handling on product that costs thousands per unit, where a single damaged shipment erases the margin on several good ones.

Match packaging to actual product dimensions first, then select carriers by shipment profile and optimize routing. Packaging is usually the largest single lever and the one most brands never touch.

Do you receive overseas container shipments? Yes. Containers are received with unit counts, SKU-level verification and labeling before inventory becomes available to sell.

Should DTC and B2B orders run through the same process? No. They have different packing requirements, timelines and compliance standards. Separate workflows drawing from one inventory pool is the structure that works.

When should a brand address shipping cost? Before growth embeds it. Inefficiency at 200 orders a month is an annoyance. The same inefficiency at 2,000 is a permanent part of your cost structure.\

Why this one matters

Most freight advice is about negotiating rates. On heavy goods, rate is rarely the biggest lever.

Freight class, dimensional weight and packaging decide what a carrier charges before any negotiation happens. A brand shipping 150-pound product at the wrong class is overpaying on every single order regardless of how good their rate is, and the correction is a process change rather than a contract change. ‍

Questions this raises

Why is shipping so expensive for heavy products? Dimensional weight pricing, freight classification and specialized handling all push the cost up. On products weighing 85 to 150 pounds, getting the classification wrong is worth more than any rate negotiation.

How do you reduce shipping cost on oversized products? Classify off real dimensions and weights captured at receiving, match carrier to shipment profile rather than defaulting, and adjust packaging to reduce billable dimensions. RoadRunner's reduction came from those three together.

What is serialization tracking? A unique identifier assigned to each individual unit, so it can be traced from warehouse to customer. It matters most for warranty-backed products, where you need to prove which unit a customer received.

Does this work for products that aren't scooters? The mechanics are the same for anything heavy or oversized. Furniture, appliances, powersports equipment and retail fixtures all price on the same variables.

Want to learn more?

Learn more about how TCB can handle your freight the right way!