Price is important but having said that, if multiple carriers are close in cost, the second factor would be speed of delivery, the less time the freight is in the system less chance of damage and problems. Since we ship almost everyday the other factors are reliability on pick up times and making pick ups on short notice

Another factor is ability to track shipment with Bill of lading number, some carriers are way better at this than others, especially when we're shipping a high value pallet we want to know where that pallet is the whole way from pick up to drop off.