# Who pays for shipping when businesses sell to eachother? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-shipping-when-businesses-sell-to-eachother/517348 "2009-11-12T19:05:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-shipping-when-businesses-sell-to-eachother/517348/21 "2009-11-14T02:48:15Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > It may be that FOB is used this way in your experience, I don’t know. But ""FOB destination is an oxymoron and a perversion of INCOTERMS. > > FOB means Free on Board and it refers to a contract in which (simplifying greatly) the seller pays the charges to get the goods to the primary transport (historically, a ship) but not for their transportation after that point, or anything further. It is to distinguish from CFR or CIF or similar, where the seller doesn’t merely get the goods on board the transport, but organises and pays the freight for the transport. FOB destination is the common designation in US industry for a contract that includes the price of the freight. The receiver will not be getting any freight bill, the freight charges are covered by the shipper/seller. The seller will invoice the receiver for the price of goods only, (yes, the cost of of freight is built into the total cost). FOB source (or origin) is used to denote a contract where either the seller will invoice the receiver for the goods and also show freight as a separate line item on the billing, or the seller will invoice the receiver for the goods only and the shipping company will invoice the receiver with separate bill for the freight. Or the receiver will arrange the pick up of the goods separate from any other agreement with the shipper. > **[FOB (shipping)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOB_(shipping))** > > FOB (free on board) is a term in international commercial law specifying at what point respective obligations, costs, and risk involved in the delivery of goods shift from the seller to the buyer under the Incoterms standard published by the International Chamber of Commerce. FOB is only used in non-containerized sea freight or inland waterway transport. As with all Incoterms, FOB does not define the point at which ownership of the goods is transferred. > The term FOB is also used in modern domest... > **[Shipping Wiki](https://shipnorthamerica.com/resources/shipping-wiki/)** > > Here you will find terms related to exports, trucking facilities, trucking terminology, and about shipping terms. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-shipping-when-businesses-sell-to-eachother/517348/22 "2009-11-14T03:20:25Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > The buyer pays for the shipping, whether it is explicitly paid for as a line item, or implicitly imbedded in the price of the goods (i.e. a delivered price) the buyer pays for the shipping. You get nothing for free. This isn’t true in any meaningful way. It’s a cost you negotiated away. You could just as easily say that if you negotiate for a 5% advertising coop fee you’re not really saving 5% because that discount was implicitly imbedded in the price of the goods. There’s a number of things that go into the real cost and it’s true the seller accounts for freight charges and advertising allowances when agreeing to their price for the goods, but it’s all just a negotiation for both sides. It’s pretty myopic to think only the buyer pays shipping. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-shipping-when-businesses-sell-to-eachother/517348/23 "2009-11-14T03:22:33Z")
I worked as an asst controller in hotels and I can say as others have, it’s all negotiable. The more you buy and the bigger you company the better deal you get. I worked in systems in Starwood Hotels which is huge and Dell Computers gave us super good deals. They were unbelievable. When I left and went to a hotel company that only owned three hotels, Dell wouldn’t give me anything I coudn’t have gotten as regular customer. I did find a deal because our local Best Buy gave me a good discount for directing all three hotels business to them. So everything is negotiable. The more you are buying the better deal you get [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-shipping-when-businesses-sell-to-eachother/517348.md?page=1)