Most brands have 15–25% in untapped savings on last mile

Your Outsourced
VP of Transportation

An ongoing carrier program for parcel shippers. One service, three pillars: carrier strategy, ongoing negotiation, and commercial support.

Get Your Free Evaluation

Why Iron Margin

Beyond the Rate Sheet

Most shipping consultants pocket a markup, lock you in, and disappear. We don't.

Direct relationships, no markup

Transparent monthly fee, sized as a fraction of the savings we surface. You deal with carriers directly. No rate inflation, no opaque consolidator economics, no margin pulled from every shipment.

On your side of the table

Not a rate broker. The job is to help you pick the right carrier for your business, not upsell volume to one.

You always net positive

Our fee is always a fraction of the monthly savings we surface, so the math only works in your direction. Four-month minimum, then month-to-month. If we stop earning it, you leave.

What we do

One service. Three pillars.

A single ongoing engagement. The shape is the same whether you're a brand or a 3PL. The audience split shows up in pillar three.

Pillar 01

Carrier Strategy

The first six weeks. Evaluate the current setup, run the RFP across the right carriers, negotiate, select, onboard new accounts. Six weeks from kickoff to the new program going live.

Pillar 02

Ongoing Negotiation

Continuous rate renegotiation, SLA monitoring, pricing checks, re-RFPs when the market shifts. We keep carriers honest so the savings don't quietly erode.

Pillar 03

Commercial Support

Tailored by audience. Brands: 3PL selection and contract review. 3PLs: pricing strategy, markup advice, and sales presentations that win deals.

Two audiences

Pick your track.

Same three pillars. The third one looks different depending on your side of the table.

DTC Brands

Better last-mile rates.
Defended every month.

An ongoing carrier program for parcel shippers. Plus 3PL selection and contract review under the same retainer.

See the brand track

3PLs

Own your shipping.
Win more clients.

A competitive rate program you control, plus the pricing and presentation support to turn it into a deal-closing tool.

See the 3PL track

Confirmed Savings "

Iron Margin really meticulously got costs down. He saved us multiple 6-figures, and of course, that's something that's going to scale for us.

Benji Stark Elster

Founder and CEO, Freak Athlete

The First Six Weeks

Six weeks to get the program live.

Then it stays live, month over month.

Week 1 Discovery + RFPs go out
Week 2 Recommendation presented
Week 3 Carrier intro + onboarding
Week 4 Test pickup
Week 5 First invoices reviewed
Week 6 First savings review, monthly cadence begins

Common Questions

No. We negotiate better rates with your existing carriers first. If a new carrier offers meaningfully better pricing, we'll flag it, but you always decide.

4 to 6 weeks from kickoff to a fully onboarded carrier. Week 1 we send RFPs. Week 2 we present the recommendation. Weeks 3 to 6 we onboard the new carrier and review the first invoices.

Most shippers who come to us have negotiated before. We benchmark against our full carrier dataset. If you're already at market, we'll tell you. If not, we find the gap.

Four months minimum to give the program time to settle in, then month-to-month. Cancel anytime after that, no charges past the month you cancel in. No multi-year lock.

Our direct carrier program works best for shippers at 50K or more per month on parcel (roughly 600K per year). If you're in the 10K to 50K range, book an intro call anyway and we'll suggest the right setup, usually a multi-carrier consolidator or a self-serve rate-shopping tool configured well, rather than the full ongoing program.

USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, DHL, Veho, OnTrac, GLS, SpeedX, UniUni, and more. We benchmark across all of them.

Talk to your outsourced VP of Transportation.

Start with a 30-minute intro call. We learn your setup, prepare a complimentary shipping evaluation, and walk you through your savings potential and our recommendation on a follow-up call.

30-minute intro call. No commitment.