Freight costs — what's reasonable to pay?
The base price is rarely the problem. It's the surcharges that make the invoice not match the price list you signed.
Why the freight invoice is hard to read
Most people who negotiate freight negotiate the base price. That's rarely where the problem sits.
A freight invoice consists of a base price per shipment and then a series of surcharges calculated separately. Surcharges typically account for between 15 and 25 per cent of the total, and they're nearly always variable or index-linked — which means the price list you signed isn't the cost you actually get.
That means two quotes with identical base prices can differ by tens of thousands a year. And it means a freight cost can rise fifteen per cent without anyone raising a single price.
The surcharges that make the difference
These recur with essentially every carrier. The levels vary, but the structure is the same.
| Surcharge | What it is | Typical level |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel surcharge | Percentage uplift following a fuel index | 8–18% of the freight |
| Volumetric weight | You're charged for space, not weight, when goods are bulky | Can double the price |
| Address correction | Fee when the address is wrong or incomplete | 60–150 kr per instance |
| Notification | Fee for contacting the recipient before delivery | 15–40 kr per shipment |
| Residential address | Uplift for delivery to a home rather than a business | 30–80 kr |
| Time window | Uplift for guaranteed delivery before a set time | 80–250 kr |
Levels are typical ranges for Swedish domestic shipments and vary between carriers and contracts.
The fuel surcharge is a percentage. That means when you negotiate the base price down, the surcharge falls automatically too — and when you don't negotiate, both rise together. A base price that has stood still for three years has still become more expensive.
The volume discount you probably don't have
All the larger carriers work with discount tiers linked to annual volume. The tier is set when the contract is signed and rarely adjusted afterwards, even if your volume has grown.
If you've increased shipments by thirty per cent since the contract was written, you're still paying under the old tier. It's the simplest negotiation there is, because the supplier already has the money — they just don't want to remind you.
What you can do yourself
- Take an invoice and work out what share of the total is surcharges. Above twenty per cent, there's room.
- Check whether you're charged volumetric weight and whether your packaging is unnecessarily large. Packaging is often cheaper to change than freight is to negotiate.
- Compare your actual annual volume against the one you stated when the contract was signed.
- Add up address corrections and failed deliveries. They're often a fault in your own customer data, not a freight cost.
What's hard to do yourself is comparing quotes, because carriers structure their price lists differently. Two quotes can rarely be placed side by side without first being recalculated against your actual shipping profile.
Last reviewed 3 August 2026. The figures are based on negotiated contracts and quotes gathered for Swedish companies with 20–100 employees. They are typical ranges, not guarantees — your cost depends on volume, contract length and the requirements you set. We update them when we see the market has moved.
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