It happens one plant at a time. Each site finds a yard that answers the phone, and it works. A few years later there are five suppliers, five sets of paperwork and nobody who can say what the company pays for pallets.
Where the cost hides
- Setup, five times over. W-9s, insurance certificates, vendor forms and ACH details for every supplier, each one kept current.
- Five sets of terms. Different invoice formats, due dates and AP contacts. You pay the same number of loads either way; you just process them five different ways.
- Five meanings of "Grade A". Without one written spec, each yard ships its own idea of the grade, and you find out at the dock.
- No price picture. Each plant knows its own price and nobody else's, so nobody knows which plant is overpaying.
- More calls when trucks run late. Five dispatchers, five phone numbers, five ways of saying "tomorrow".
- More fraud exposure. Every vendor is another inbox a fake bank-change request can come from.
Count it at your company
For each supplier, write down:
- Delivered price per pallet and loads per month
- Rejected or short loads last quarter
- Late trucks last quarter
- Hours your team spent on calls, setup and invoice questions
Put the five side by side. The price column is usually the smallest difference on the page.
What consolidating looks like
One written spec for each grade. One rate card with a delivered price for every site. One account manager and one invoice format. Sites still order on their own schedule.
You don't have to switch everything at once, and you can keep a local yard that's working. Start with one site and one test load.
One rule we hold with every supplier, and that's worth holding with yours: bank details never change by email alone.
