Shippers can't afford to be lackadaisical in managing their parcel spend management, says Josh Dunham, chief executive officer of Reveel.

As head of a parcel spend management and data analytics company, Dunham sees his job as helping businesses that ship a lot of parcels become more efficient and save money. In other words, he’s been a parcel consultant. But recent technology developments raise an important question: Is parcel consulting dead or obsolete?

Dunham himself posed that question in a recent webinar. His answer: Certainly not. At the same time, he says, “the parcel consulting negotiation landscape will forever change.” Consultants will be required in cases where -carrier engagements and negotiations are complex. “They will still be relevant there. But when you have simple engagements, with one or two carriers, customers now have the ability to do that on their own inside of an application.”

Regardless of which route is taken to arrive at an agreement, parties can’t sit back and relax. Dunham says agreements are great the day that they’re put in place. “From that point on, they start to decay.” And that underscores the need “to consistently and actively manage the agreement. because there will be things that will alter the optimization of that agreement.” For example, a new product or SKU might be introduced, leaving the prior agreement less than optimal in that particular case. 

Expiring discounts is another major item to be on the alert for, Dunham says. “Often, carriers will give you discounts, but they'll put a shelf life on things that have expiration dates.” Discounts may rest on spend levels. Shipping more may bring discounts, but they could disappear when shipments decline in number or volume. “You have to watch for movement in your revenue tiers.”