How to Protect Your Transportation Budget in 2025

Every year, carriers announce their General Rate Increases (GRIs), and every year, shippers brace themselves for the impact. For many businesses, GRIs feel like a “necessary evil” of moving freight. But here’s the truth: with the right strategy and the right partner, you can minimize, control, and in some cases completely avoid those increases.

At Revcon, we work with clients to take the surprise out of GRIs and replace it with stability, predictability, and savings.

What Exactly Is a GRI?

A General Rate Increase is when carriers adjust their base pricing across their networks. These adjustments typically come once a year and are designed to help carriers offset the rising costs of fuel, labor, insurance, equipment, and infrastructure.

While the published numbers usually fall in the 5–7% range, the impact is rarely uniform.

A shipper with heavy regional traffic might see double-digit increases on certain lanes, while another may feel very little change at all. The key takeaway: the GRI percentage you see in headlines is only a starting point. The real effect on your transportation spend depends on your unique freight profile.

Why GRIs Hit Harder Now

In 2025, carriers are looking closely at profitability and capacity management. This means GRIs aren’t just about covering costs, they’re also used as a tool to steer freight into the lanes and networks carriers prefer.

That can leave shippers paying significantly more on less favorable lanes if they don’t have leverage or alternatives in place.

Without a plan, the result can be sudden increases in landed costs, tighter margins, and some tough choices for your supply chain team.

How to Protect Your Budget

Here are the ways Revcon helps clients reduce exposure and stay ahead during GRI season:

1. Negotiate Customer Specific Pricing (CSPs)

One of the most powerful strategies to counter GRIs is securing Customer Specific Pricing agreements. These agreements are negotiated directly with carriers, tailored to your shipping patterns, and—most importantly—they are not subject to annual GRIs.

This means your rates remain stable even when carriers push broad increases across the market. For clients with consistent volumes, CSPs provide predictability and long-term protection against cost creep.

2. Leverage Maximum Optimization

CSPs are just one part of the equation. Revcon’s Maximum Optimization program layers together three sources of pricing:

• Your existing carrier contracts

• Custom rates we negotiate on your behalf

• Revcon’s nationwide spot rates

This blended model ensures that every shipment moves under the best available option—without your team needing to constantly shop rates or second-guess the carrier mix.

3. Expand Your Carrier Network

A narrow carrier base limits your options when rates change. That’s why we continue to expand our partnerships—last year alone, we grew our LTL carrier network by 15%. 

A broader pool of carriers gives us the flexibility to reroute freight, negotiate better rates, and protect your service levels when others are pushing increases.

4. Turn Data Into Action

Through our Freight Audit & Pay program, we analyze your shipping activity lane by lane. This visibility allows us to identify where GRIs will hit hardest and develop strategies to shift volume or renegotiate terms before those increases take effect. Instead of reacting to invoices after the fact, you’re armed with insights to stay ahead of the curve.

5. Build a Custom Strategy

Every client’s freight profile is different. Some need stability for high-volume LTL programs, while others need flexibility for TL spot moves. At Revcon, we design strategies that fit your business—not a one-size-fits-all playbook.

That’s why our clients save an average of 16% annually on transportation spend compared to managing GRIs on their own.

The Bottom Line

GRIs may be an annual tradition, but they don’t have to dictate your transportation budget. By negotiating Customer Specific Pricing, leveraging Revcon’s Maximum Optimization, and putting data-driven strategies in place, you can turn an unpredictable cost into a manageable one.

At Revcon, our mission is to give clients peace of mind, knowing they’re not only protected from GRIs but positioned for long-term success in a volatile market.

Want to see how much of your spend can be shielded from GRIs? Let’s talk.