How We Calculate Rush Order Fees
“Can we get this by Friday?” is a question our account managers hear all the time. While we offer 24-hour and 48-hour production options for our clients, these options come with additional costs. In this blog, we want to explain exactly where the fee comes from, instead of leaving it as a mystery on your invoice.
What actually drives the cost of a rush order
We always inform our clients that ordering in a rush comes with additional fees. It’s not to punish you for ordering late and giving us the trouble of having to complete this at a given time. Rather, it’s to cover the resources we need to make sure it’s produced as quickly as possible:
- Priority production slots: Your order moves ahead of other confirmed jobs already in the schedule.
- Overtime labour: Our staff and production partners work outside normal hours to meet your deadline.
- Express freight: We use air freight or priority couriers instead of standard shipping by sea or road.
- Reduced quality-control windows: There is less time between production and dispatch, so extra staff check for issues early instead of skipping quality checks.
- Supplier prioritisation fees: Some factories and decorators charge extra to move a job ahead of others, and we pass this cost on transparently.
Roughly how the numbers break down
Exact figures depend on product type, quantity, decoration method, and current production load. This is just a general guide, not a quote. If you need an accurate quotation, you may contact our account managers.
What can make a rush order cheaper?
Ariane Milarpez, one of our account managers, recalled that one of her clients asked her if it is possible to avoid these additional fees. In cases like these, we always suggest:
- Choosing products already held in local stock rather than made-to-order overseas.
- Using fewer print colours or a faster decoration method.
- Being flexible with the delivery address and avoiding delivery to multiple locations.
- Letting us know even a few days earlier than you think you need to can help. Production scheduling is often more flexible a few days out than it is at 48 hours.
- Ordering in round quantities that match standard production batch sizes, instead of odd numbers that need custom runs.
What this looks like in practice
Say you need 200 branded polo shirts for an event in five days. Under standard timelines, that order might take two to three weeks between production and delivery. To compress that:
- We check current stock and choose blanks already in Australia instead of imported garments.
- We schedule decoration with overtime or priority slots at our supplier.
- We use next-day or same-day couriers instead of standard shipping, where possible.
- Quality control still happens, but on a tighter schedule. A dedicated staff member oversees it instead of a routine batch check.
Each of these steps adds a cost, and that is what the rush fee covers. It is not just an extra charge for urgency.
How our local team helps
When a client places a rush order, there are logistics or packing concerns that need to be attended to as soon as possible. Our local team is willing to spend overtime to help pack these and ship the branded merchandise you ordered right after production is finished.
Why we’re transparent about this upfront
Nobody likes a surprise fee on an invoice, so we have designed our quoting process to avoid that. Our account managers include rush costs in the first conversation, so you can decide if the deadline is worth the extra cost before production starts.
Need something quickly? Talk to our team, and we will tell you honestly if it is possible and exactly what it will cost.
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