Leo Rodriguez has spent years watching ecommerce brands quietly overpay on shipping, sometimes billed for 18 pounds on a parcel that actually weighs two. In this episode of the eCommerce Podcast, Matt Edmundson sits down with the VP of a Los Angeles 3PL to pull apart the unglamorous moves that protect your margin, one parcel at a time.

Summary

Leo Rodriguez, VP of River Plate, Inc., joins Matt to talk through the hidden costs sitting inside every order you ship. It starts with dimensional weight, where a small product in an oversized box gets rated as a far heavier shipment, so you end up paying for air. Leo explains how "cartonization" and carrier rate-shopping can claw that money back, saving $2 to $3 per parcel for brands doing hundreds of orders a day.

From there the conversation widens out to the messier stuff. Leo breaks down why smaller brands got hit hardest by the new tariffs while bigger brands used their buying power to get manufacturers to absorb the freight. He and Matt compare notes on international shipping gray zones, customs nitpicking, fuel surcharges becoming the new normal, and Amazon's ever-growing pile of fees.

• 00:00 Welcome and meet Leo
• 03:58 The inventory and replenishment problem
• 09:51 Tariffs, Brexit and customs gray zones
• 21:29 Why small brands got hit hardest
• 25:29 Fuel surcharges and the new normal
• 29:02 Cartonization, save $2 to $3 a parcel
• 33:07 Amazon's fees and dim weight
• 41:17 How to reach Leo

Dim Weight and Cartonization, Where Your Margin Quietly Leaks

[33:07]

Dimensional weight is the formula carriers use to rate a parcel by the space it takes up, not just what it weighs. Put a light product in a box that is too big and you get penalised for the empty space.

"If you're putting it in a, you know, 12 by 12 by 12 box and weighs only 2 pounds... it's not a 2-pound shipment. It's getting rated at an 18-pound shipment." — Leo Rodriguez

The fix is cartonization, where transport management software reads the net dimensions and weight of your products and picks the smallest sensible shipper. Pair that with rate-shopping across a multi-channel carrier network and the savings add up fast.

• Brands doing 100 to 300 orders a day can save $2 to $3 per parcel
• Shipping cost can be more than your fulfilment fee on a per-order basis
• Regional carriers and zone skipping can halve transit time and cost on the right lanes

"They're saving $2 per shipment. That adds up. That's a margin protector." — Leo RodriguezWhy Smaller Brands Got Hit Hardest by Tariffs

[21:29]

When the large tariff percentages landed, the brands with leverage came out ahead. Big brands could go back to their overseas manufacturers and renegotiate, and in some cases get the factory to cover the full freight bill, between $4,000 and $9,000 a container.

Smaller brands had no such leverage. Many were left holding inventory they had already produced overseas but could not afford to import, while retail partners cancelled or halved the very purchase orders they had been banking on.

• Lead times stretched from 3 to 4 weeks out to 8 to 12 weeks
• Brands shifted to smaller consolidated shipments, nearshoring, and alternate-country manufacturing in places like Malaysia and Taiwan
• Standing up a new supply chain takes time, so the relief is rarely quick

International Shipping and the Customs Gray Zone

[09:51]

Matt and Leo swap war stories on cross-border shipping, with Matt's running Brexit gag as the UK parallel to US tariff chaos. On both sides of the Atlantic, free global trade turns out not to be that free.

Country-by-country rules are strict, especially on cosmetics and skincare, with Italy, Spain and Mexico all flagged. You can send 50 or 100 shipments through fine, then one customs agent nitpicks and the product gets stuck, disposed of, and the brand cops the bad review.

"Free global trade is not actually that free... it does require quite a lot of joined-up thinking." — Matt Edmundson

Leo's advice is to build item-level profiles, get the harmonised codes and packaging language right at the point of manufacture, and register properly for tax before you fire away.

Fuel Surcharges, Amazon's Fees, and the New Normal

[25:29]

Fuel surcharges jumped roughly 18 to 20% in two months, and the historical pattern is that surcharges ratchet up and never quite come back down. Plastics and packaging climbed 20 to 30%, hitting shrink wrap, poly mailers and bubble bags.

Amazon comes in for a closer look too. Powerful, yes, but fee-laden, with per-unit charges, ageing and seasonality storage tiers, FBA percentages, marketing fees, and a quietly added fuel surcharge in early May. Leo's case is for channel diversification, so you keep some control and predictability rather than living entirely inside one ecosystem.

"I am optimistic overall still. I think brands, you get smart and then you have to be resilient." — Leo RodriguezToday's Guest

Leo Rodriguez is Vice President of River Plate, Inc., a Los Angeles-based 3PL and fulfilment company serving DTC, wholesale and Amazon brands. River Plate handles fulfilment, logistics and international shipping, and Leo is happy to take a quick call to see whether there is a fit.

• Website: riverplateinc.com
• LinkedIn: Leo Rodriguez
• River Plate Inc on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Email: [email protected]

About the eCommerce Podcast

The eCommerce Podcast helps you deliver eCommerce WOW. Every Thursday, Matt Edmundson talks with experts and founders who've built the stores and learned the hard way, so you don't have to.

Subscribe and find every episode, with full show notes and links, at ecommerce-podcast.com. While you're there, take a look at the free monthly eCommerce Cohort and Slingshot AI Mentor.

Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/why-your-2-pound-parcel-ships-like-it-weighs-18