Honesty as the Best Shipping Policy

To calculate shipping and packaging charges, the company uses proprietary programs that calculate net freight costs for each carrier, plus a few dollars to cover packaging and additional freight charges (e.g., rural upcharges, address corrections).

According to Hamel, the charges are seasonally monitored to ensure that the freight income the catalog collects from customers is close to its actual outbound shipping and packaging expenses. Catalog officials spot-check sample orders to ensure they aren’t over-charging East Coast customers and under-charging West Coast customers.