By: Zac Meyer, Director of Operations
Managing costs and maximizing efficiencies are a common thread in all businesses. One area where we at Rock River Laboratory have spent a great deal of time exploring solutions is managing the process of customers submitting their samples. In this day and age, turnaround time is crucial in making decisions on-farm, and shipping is a key component to making that happen. We have covered USPS and UPS Ground shipping costs for our customer base for many years and have expanded our network of laboratories so we can offer logistically convenient options for a large portion of the US. In addition, we have established Convenience Routes at many of our locations, ensuring our customer base of prompt and reliable analytical services. At Rock River Laboratory, we understand the circumstances facing the agriculture economy and have taken steps to avoid raising our prices on our most commonly used analyses, despite the rising costs associated with providing these services. That said, one area you, our customers, can help us manage these expenses is by placing as many samples as you can fit, into our postage-paid mailing envelopes (to some they are more ‘bags’).
Our mail carriers charge us a flat rate per parcel for all shipments to Rock River Laboratory. This means whether you place one sample in the envelope, or three, we pay the same price. For most routine analyses, we only need a quart size bag of feed or forage - meaning you should be able to send several samples in a single envelope. Moreover, there isn’t a need to send separate parcels for each farm.
Despite the fact that shipping is our fourth highest expense as an organization, we will continue to provide postage-paid solutions for years to come. It is something we take pride in providing our customers, and we hope that it helps carry the burden as a token of our appreciation. In order to help us continue to provide you with the most bang for your forage analysis dollar, we ask you to please assist us by filling the envelope the next time you send us your samples. Thanks for considering this effort. It’s a pleasure to serve all of you, and we greatly appreciate your business!
