Analysis of Shipping Costs from Scientific Suppliers

INTRODUCTION

When ordering lab supplies, the most confusing part of the cost is not necessarily the cost of the supplies themselves, but the multiple, extra charges that appear on an invoice once the items have shipped. Transparency is an important part of the vendor-customer relationship. As Virtual Lab Managers in charge of managing purchasing and logistics for labs across the U.S, it is our job to be aware of all costs to help manage and minimize expectations when spending a lab’s funding.

We conducted a shipping analysis using data from orders managed by HappiLabs to investigate whether vendors are transparent about shipping charges and the likelihood of being able to predict these charges.

For our analysis, we compiled data from 510 invoices from 30 vendors across 5 non-academic, private biotech laboratories (Table 1) in the U.S., and identified 21 unique shipping titles (Table 2) and shipping costs ranging from $3.12 to $630.89.

Table 1. Shipping Analysis Summary Table

Table 2. Unique Shipping Titles, as seen on invoices

Table 3. Suppliers used in shipping analysis.

ANALYSIS

Out of the 30 vendors (Table 3), only 4 explicitly listed shipping charges on their website; Biolegend, New England Biolabs, Promega, and Life Technologies (Thermo). We found that these charges were consistent with what was listed on the respective sites. Only Biolegend and New England Biolabs had fixed shipping charges of $35.00 and $31.00 (Table 4) respectively, which are predictable for all orders. This does not include free shipping rates that may be negotiated or applied when an order is greater than a certain amount. 

When the title “Shipping” appeared on invoices, charges varied from $3.97 to $213.24. It is unclear how these charges are calculated. Out of 10 invoices from Genesee Scientific Corporation, only 2 invoices listed shipping charges of $13.99 and $35.99. Bio-Rad, Cole-Parmer, Thomas Scientific, and VWR all listed shipping as a “Freight Charge.” The amounts varied across invoices and ranged from $12.22 to $354.29. Promega was the only vendor to use “Delivery/Freight,” and from 11 invoices, the charge ranged from $43.00 to $200.00. 

The only vendor to charge a fixed amount when “handling” appeared on an invoice was Bio-Rad. Out of 14 invoices, 13 contained a $20.00 charge and 1 contained a $35.00 charge. Life Technologies (Thermo) used a range of $38.95 to $115.00, which was consistent with their website. Two other vendors listed explicit handling charges, Fisher Scientific and Quartzy. Fisher Scientific charged $60.00 and $80.00, while Quartzy charged a range of $5.00 to $55.00. Agilent was the only vendor to list an “expedited handling” charge of $1.94 and $23.00. Further analysis is required to determine accurate ranges for Fisher Scientific and Agilent, as the charge was seen on 2 invoices from each vendor.

Table 4. Shipping Titles with Fixed Charges

The most varied title was “shipping and handling,” with no vendor providing a fixed charge. Life Technologies (Thermo), Qiagen, Agilent, Global Industrial, and R&D Systems listed the charge as “Shipping and Handling,” and it ranged from $8.00 to $115.56. BD Biosciences, Uline, and US Plastics listed the charge as “Shipping/Handling,” which ranged from $7.50 to $140.08. Amazon and American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) listed the charge as “Shipping & Handling,” which ranged from $5.99 to $8.97, and $79.00 to $157.82, respectively. Sigma Aldrich listed a “Trans/Handling” charge on every invoice analyzed and charged a range of $17.11 to $630.89. One invoice from Life Technologies (Thermo) contained a “Delivery & Handling” charge of $6.81. Fisher Scientific was the only vendor to list a “fuel surcharge” with a range from $4.70 to $5.95. Agilent was the only vendor to have a “Surcharge” which contained a range of $3.20 to $151.47. The remaining charges were fixed dollar amounts and are listed in Table 4. 

While charges on invoices from Life Technologies (Thermo) were consistent between invoices and website listings, it was common to see 2 or 3 additional charges on an invoice. One example from an order contained a merchandise subtotal of $47.30, a dry/wet ice charge of $17.50, and handling charge of $38.95, which brought the final total to $103.75. Similar to Life Technologies, Fisher Scientific, another TMO subsidiary, regularly listed multiple charges on a single invoice. One example contained a merchandise subtotal of $16.92, a $4.70 fuel surcharge, and a $60.83 shipping charge, bringing the final total to $93.17. Finally, a third invoice contained a merchandise subtotal of $1,069.82 and a shipping charge of only $3.12, bringing the final total to $1,173.23.

SUMMARY

Overall, there are a few takeaways to note:

1. There is no consistency in the semantics used for shipping titles. In many cases we’re not sure if scientists are paying for labor, ice, the actual shipping costs (with Fedex, UPS, etc.), materials, or other.

2. Fisher and ThermoFisher charge the most variety of shipping titles.

3. There are inconsistencies in how shipping is calculated and classified across vendors. 

While some charges and titles were fixed, multiple often appeared on a single invoice. Usually, once items are added to a cart, scientists don’t know how much these charges will be, whether they will be applied to their orders, or whether multiple charges will be applied. Even when a vendor always charged for shipping, the amount charged varied from order to order. Since these charges are not typically shown when placing an order, it creates a discrepancy between what a scientist expects to pay and what is actually paid. We also found that not every supplier indicates what their shipping charges will be on their websites. From the 30 we analyzed, only 4 suppliers clearly indicated their charges online.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted supply chains and exacerbated many logistical difficulties. The lack of communication on the supplier end about what or how much will be charged creates pricing discrepancies that contribute to the growing challenges that scientists now face. We hope this article helps our scientists understand the importance of price transparency, and how shipping costs could add up to $100’s on your invoice without you knowing about it.